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We had such good access to newspapers and
TV that our book reading went down.
Nonetheless, it seems that this list
of books must be incomplete.
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My
Life as an Explorer
by
Sven Hedin
We bought this book at Commercial Press in Hong Kong (just above the
China Products Store in Tsim Sha Tsui). It turned out to be a delightful
read. Hedin worked most of his life for the King of Sweden exploring
what was then known as Chinese East Turkestan, now Xinjiang province.
He also was an early explorer of Tibet. This first person account
of his exploits is not only fascinating but a quite riveting read.
His
travels took place in the early years of the 20th century, before airplanes,
satellites, and telephones in this part of the world.
As an older man he
supported Hitler, thinking that Germany would be the savior of a Sweden
that was faced with an expansionist Soviet Union.
This killed his public
popularity.
Very highly recommended.
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The
Travels of Marco Polo
It would be hard to recommend this book, which
is often so repetitive and yet having been to China and read Sven Hedin’s
book about exploring in Chinese Turkestan, the book was nonetheless interesting.
One regret: I wish I had had an atlas with me while I read it to make it
easier to follow his route.
I also wish that the short glossary of place
names had been more complete.
It was sometimes possible to guess at place
names, but it would have been nicer to have absolute confirmation.
Because
it was a Chinese edition, perhaps it was assumed that the Chinese would
recognise most of the Chinese places.
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