News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir (1936) is a travel book by Peter Fleming describing his journey through time and the political situation of Turkestan

Turkestan

Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...

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The book recounts a successful 3500 mile journey from Peking, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 to Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 in 1935. He was accompanied on this journey by Ella Maillart

Ella Maillart

Ella Maillart was a French-speaking Swiss adventurer, travel writer and photographer, as well as a sportswoman.- Life :...

 (Kini). The journey started on the 16th February, 1935 and took seven months to complete. The objective of the journey was, as contained within the title of the book, to ascertain what was happening in Sinkiang

Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...

 (also known as Chinese Turkestan) in the aftermath of the civil war

Chinese Civil War

The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...

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The author notes that "Tartary is not strictly a geographical term, any more than Christendom

Christendom

Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...

 is", and goes on to point out that Tartary is merely the name given to the place where the Tartars come from. He explains that in his usage it refers to Sinkiang and the highlands bordering it.

The journey took the travellers from Peking to Tungkuan

Tungkuan

Tungkuan may refer to one of the following locations in China:*The old name of Dongguan, Guangdong*Tongguan County, located in Shaanxi, it's famously known for its historical pass.*Tungkuan, Taiwan...

, then Sian

Xi'an

Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...

, Pingliang

Pingliang

Pingliang is a prefecture-level city in eastern Gansu Province in China. Pingliang is famous for a local mountain range that includes Kongtong Mountain, a site sacred to Taoism and mythical meeting place of the Yellow Emperor and Guangchengzi, an immortal....

, Lanchow

Lanzhou

Lanzhou is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. A prefecture-level city, it is a key regional transportation hub, allowing areas further west to maintain railroad connections to the eastern half of the country....

, Sining

Xining

Xining is the capital of Qinghai province, People's Republic of China, and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. It has 2,208,708 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 1,198,304 live in the built up area made of 4 urban districts.-History:...

, Dzunchia, Teijinar, Issik Pakte, Cherchen, Niya

Niya

Niya may refer to* Ruins of Niya , a site on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin, in modern-day Xinjiang, China* Niya, county seat of Minfeng County in the Tarim Basin, China...

, Keriya

Keriya

Keriya Town or Mugala Town , is a town in Keriya County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, on the old Southern Silk Road. As the commercial and administrative centre of Keriya County, it is about 166 km east of Khotan, 80 km east of Qira, and 120 km west of Niya...

, Khotan

Khotan

Hotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....

, Guma, Karghalik, Yarkand, Kashgar

Kashgar

Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately...

, Tashkurgan

Tashkurgan

- Karakoram Highway :Today Tashkurgan is on the Karakoram Highway which follows the old Silk Road route from China to Pakistan. Accommodation is available and it is a recommended overnight stop for road travellers from China to Pakistan in order to have the best chance of crossing the snow-prone...

, Hunza

Hunza (princely state)

Hunza was a princely state in the northernmost part of the Northern Areas of Pakistan until 1974. The state was also known as Kanjut. The state bordered the Gilgit Agency to the south, the former princely state of Nagar to the east, China, to the north and Afghanistan to the northwest. The state...

, Nagar

Nagar, Pakistan

Nagar is a town near to the Gilgit Valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. The town is located in Hunza–Nagar District and was the capital of the former State of Nagar...

, Gilgit

Gilgit, Pakistan

Gilgit is the capital city of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Gilgit City forms a tehsil of Gilgit, within Gilgit District. Its ancient name was Sargin, later to be known as Gilit, and it is still called Gilit or Sargin-Gilit by local people...

 and finally Srinagar

Srinagar

Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...

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The book was reissued (with One's Company

One's Company

One's Company: a journey to China, London, 1936, is a travel book by Peter Fleming, correspondent for The Times, describing his journey day-by-day from London through Moscow and the Trans-Siberian Railway, then through Japanese-run Manchukuo, then on to Nanking, the capital of China in the 1930s,...

) as half of Travels in Tartary.

Quotes

• I have travelled fairly widely in 'Communist' Russia (where they supplied me with the inverted commas).
• ... to read a propagandist, a man with vested intellectual interests, is as dull as dining with a vegetarian.
• I know nothing, and care less, about political theory; knavery, oppression and ineptitude, as perpetrated by governments, interest me only in their concrete manifestations, in their impact on mankind: not in their nebulous doctrinal origins.