{"product_id":"forbidden-journey-9780810119857","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-WWII 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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Marlboro Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/26\/2003\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780810119857\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 384\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.57h x 5.30w x 0.75d","brand":"Ella K. Maillart","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43271786987701,"sku":"9780810119857","price":19.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_7422877e-9ecf-4be5-b9b5-de1ee9986c87.jpg?v=1699957116","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/forbidden-journey-9780810119857","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}