Across Asia on a Bicycle: The Journey of Two American Students from Constantinople to Peking - Brossura

Allen, Thomas Gaskell, Jr.; Sachtleben, William Lewis

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1494393395 ISBN 13: 9781494393397

Casa editrice: Createspace Independent Pub, 2013

Riassunto

Out of print since the 1890s, the incredible true story of the first global bicycle expedition. CONTENTS BEYOND THE BOSPORUS THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA This volume is made up of a series of sketches describing the most interesting part of a bicycle journey around the world,--our ride across Asia. We were actuated by no desire to make a "record" in bicycle travel, although we covered 15,044 miles on the wheel, the longest continuous land journey ever made around the world. The day after we were graduated at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., we left for New York. Thence we sailed for Liverpool on June 23, 1890. Just three years afterward, lacking twenty days, we rolled into New York on our wheels, having "put a girdle round the earth." Our bicycling experience began at Liverpool. After following many of the beaten lines of travel in the British Isles we arrived in London, where we formed our plans for traveling across Europe, Asia, and America. The most dangerous regions to be traversed in such a journey, we were told, were western China, the Desert of Gobi, and central China. Never since the days of Marco Polo had a European traveler succeeded in crossing the Chinese empire from the west to Peking. Crossing the Channel, we rode through Normandy to Paris, across the lowlands of western France to Bordeaux, eastward over the Lesser Alps to Marseilles, and along the Riviera into Italy. After visiting every important city on the peninsula, we left Italy at Brindisi on the last day of 1890 for Corfu, in Greece. Thence we traveled to Patras, proceeding along the Corinthian Gulf to Athens, where we passed the winter. We went to Constantinople by vessel in the spring, crossed the Bosporus in April, and began the long journey described in the following pages. When we had finally completed our travels in the Flowery Kingdom, we sailed from Shanghai for Japan. Thence we voyaged to San Francisco, where we arrived on Christmas night, 1892. Three weeks later we resumed our bicycles and wheeled by way of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to New York. During all of this journey we never employed the services of guides or interpreters. We were compelled, therefore, to learn a little of the language of every country through which we passed. Our independence in this regard increased, perhaps, the hardships of the journey, but certainly contributed much toward the object we sought--a close acquaintance with strange peoples. Thomas Stevens was the first to circle the world by bicycle, doing so in the 1880s using a giant wheeled bicycle. These two young men were the second to accomplish this great feat and the first to do so using modern bicycles. In addition, they used the much more dangerous route across central Asia. Unfortunately, the arrival of the automobile put a quick and unfortunate end to the age of globe-circling bicycle travel. As a result, this book has been out of print since the 1890s.

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L'autore:

Allen and Sachtleben graduated from Washington University in June 1890, sailed to Liverpool, and began a 15,000 mile bicycle journey to Peking. They had conceived of the idea during their senior year as "a practical finish to a theoretical education" in liberal arts. Their account really begins in Asia Minor as they cycle on through Persia and Turkestan, with detours to Merv, Bokhara and Samarkand. They peddled across the vast tract of the Gobi Desert to Peking, where they were received by Li-Hung-Chang, the Prime Minister of China.

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• Editore: Createspace Independent Pub
• Data di pubblicazione: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1494393395
• ISBN 13: 9781494393397
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 184