What year did marco polo travel to china?

Accounts seem to vary, but he started inthe early 1270s. Try these sites for particulars (even though they don't agree):

http://www.bookrags.com/Marco_Polo

His first trip to the Orient was in 1271 when he was only 17 years old, with his uncle and father, passing through Armenia, Persia, and Afghanistan, over the Pamirs, and all along the Silk Road to China. After more than 3 years and 5600 miles, they arrived in Shang-Tu, and subsequently traveled throughout the Yuan empire (modern day China, Mongolia, parts of Korea and Russia) which was at that time under the control of the Mongols. They left and arrived back in Venice in 1295, after 24 years away. When I was a kid growing up somewhere on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea near Polo's hometown, my uncle gave me a book -Le Livre des Merveilles (The Book of Wonders)...I became a geographer, to the greatest extent because of this book!