Search -
News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir
News from Tartary A Journey from Peking to Kashmir Author:Peter Fleming Originally published in 1936, "News from Tartary" is the story of a 3,500-mile journey from Peking, through the mysterious province of Sinkiang, to India. One of the most difficult trips possible in the 1930s, the route took Fleming and his fellow traveler, Kini Maillart, a young Swiss journalist, through some of the most desolate coun... more »try of central Asia, over passes more than 15,000 feet high, through burning deserts, and among some of the world's most exotic peoples. Made without the knowledge of the Chinese government, the trip often endangered the lives of the travelers; Fleming, fortunately, proved adept with a .22-caliber rook rifle, and Maillart's amateur medical skills more than once put her in good favor with local residents. Fleming tells the story in his inimitable manner -- dismissing the difficulties with irony and describing events and developments with humor and brilliant color.
Filled with endurance and adventure, with strange encounters in the wilderness, with tales of Chinese, Mongols, and Indians, Fleming's account of Tartary has become a classic of travel writing as well as a definitive description of a vanished way of life.« less