Marco Polo called Hangzhou, the former imperial city of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), the „most beautiful and magnificent city in the world.“ Even today, a statue of the Italian merchant stands on the shore of West Lake, the city’s most famous attraction. Jack Ma also deserves a statue on West Lake. On its shores, the later founder of Alibaba once practiced his English on tourists by simply chatting them up. Ma contributed just as much to China’s reputation as a tech giant as Marco Polo’s travelogues once did to the myth of a distant, prosperous China in medieval Europe.