This is the second of a trilogy of travel books. It took me years to finish as it was hard going in the early pages. I daresay the translation to English affected its authenticity, although Hedin was an adventurer of admirable qualities. Given that he turned seventy at the end of the journey outlined in this book makes him all the more admirable. Not sure I will read the other two books but I am glad I persevered with this classic. ( )

An incredible road surveying journey along the silk route while the Chinese Civil war is raging all around. Quite a well written travelogue.

An incredible road surveying journey along the silk route while the Chinese Civil war is raging all around. Quite a well written travelogue.

The Swedish expeditioner undertook the mandate of the Chinese government in 1933 to conduct a geological survey to select the routes for a highway through the old Silk Road long since abandoned. Japanese soldiers were maneuvering near the Imperial City, Sinkiang, the Torguts, and Eastern Turkistan had broken away from China, and the Russians were encroaching on the Northern border. Meanwhile, geologists were working on an 18 foot map trying to work out geological problems and place paleontological discoveries in the Swedish colony in Peking. Sven Hedin apparently befriended the Europeans and Chinese. After discussing the chaos and war conditions, the War Minister, Ho Ying-chin, and a Foreign Minister, Liu Chung-chieh, met with Hedin. He pointed out that "In the semicircle of buffer States under Chinese authority, which the Emperor Chien Lung created round the Central Empire, only one link remains. Since the Republic was introduced you have lost Tibet, Outer Mongolia, Manchuria and Jehol, and Inner Mongolia too is seriously threatened. Sinkiang is still Chinese, but is plit at the moment by Moahmmedan revolt and civil war. If nothing is done to defend the province, it will be lost too." [9] When asked what they should do, Hedin suggests, "The first step ought to be and can be to make and keep up first-class motor roads between China proper and Sinkiang. A railway line into the heart of Asia is the next step." Roads would also enable China to recover the trade lost to Russia. Soon, a politically-neutral eight month expedition was authorized, with a subsidy estimated at "50,000 Mexican dollars". [13] Noting that the coutry reound Lou-lan had been inhabited in ancient times, he was also to examine it for possibilities of colonization/irrigation [12]. He writes of looking forward to "a time full of uncertainty and wild adventures among brutal Asiatics. We were all determined to fight like lions for our honour, and not return till we had done our utmost to carry out an undertaking which most people considered impossible and hopeless." [15]

He saw the Silk Road "at its lowest ebb, with dormant life and dying trade, the connecting towns and villages in ruins, the population languishing in a state of permanent insecurity and miserable poverty." [230]

He documented the fact that for 500 years peaceful traffic continued uninterrupted, "because all saw the enormous importance and advantage of one of the greatest and richest arteries of world trade" carried out 2000 years ago. [234]