{"product_id":"forbidden-journey-book-ella-maillart-9780712600668","title":"Forbidden Journey","description":"A classic account of a trip through China during the golden age of travel \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1935 Ella Maillart contemplated one of the most arduous journeys in the world: the impossible journey from Peking, then a part of Japanese-occupied China, through the distant province of Sinkiang (present day Tukestan), to Kashmir. Enlisting with newswriter Peter Fleming (with the caveat that his company remain tolerable), Maillart undertook a journey considered almost beyond imagination for any European and doubly so for a woman.\u003cbr\u003eThe trip promised hardships such as typhus and bandits, as well as the countless hazards surrounding the civil war between Chinese communists and Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists. Setting out with pockets full of Mexican money (the currency used in China at the time), Maillart encountered a way of life now lost, but one that then had gone unchanged for centuries. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMaillart describes it all with the sharp eye and unvarnished prose of a veteran reporter-the missionaries and rogues, parents binding daughters' feet with rags, the impatient Fleming lighting fires under stubborn camels. It's a hard road, not that Maillart cares. At all times she is a witty, always-enchanted guide-except when it comes to bureaucrats. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eForbidden Journey ranks among other travel narratives like Fleming's News from Tartary, (based on the same journey) and Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana. But it is also a portrait of a fascinating woman, one of many women from the pre-WI era who ignored convention and traveled in hidden lands. It remains a vivid account of its time and a classic of travel literature.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49520823140625,"sku":"GOR001256552","price":17.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49542520471825,"sku":"GOR002087105","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51158229811473,"sku":"GOR002773149","price":11.69,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0712600663.jpg?v=1750784619","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/forbidden-journey-book-ella-maillart-9780712600668","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}