num_pages: 237
description: "From the beginning, it was a silly idea. This, of course, I liked."With these words, a young American named Stuart Stevens sets off to retrace the famous journey made by explorer Peter Fleming in 1934 across Chinese Turkistan, from Beijing to Kashgar, the subject of Fleming's classic book 'News from Tartary.' Closed to foreigners since 1949, Chinese Turkistan, or Tartary, is one of the most remote and least populated areas on earth - a place of physical extremes, containing both the world's highest point, Mount Everest, and its second lowest, the Turfan depression. In between lurks the dreaded Takla Makan desert, a 125,000 square mile expanse of desolation with temperatures than average over 110 degrees in summer and 5 below zero in winter, when Stevens undertook his journey. For weeks he and his three companions - two men an a woman - rarely removed their gloves or coats, even to eat or sleep. They travelled by train, bus, donkey cart, truck and bicycle, beset by obstacles both physical and political at virtually every stage of the journey.
language: English
title: Night Train to Turkistan: Adventures Along China's Ancient Silk Road
titlecomplete: Night Train to Turkistan: Adventures Along China's Ancient Silk Road
genres: China, History, Asia, Nonfiction, Travel, Adventure, Memoir
ratings_count: 303
publisher: Pan Macmillan