From Pekin to Calais by Land

There are two Englishmen at present living in Shangai who have travelled overland from Europe to China. I was told, when there, that these gentlemen are continually receiving letters from England asking for information relative to the journey from Petersburg to Pekin and vice versa, via the Gobi Desert and Siberia. It was mainly owing to this circumstance that I publish these pages, for I fear the general reader will find little of interest in this account of a monotonous pilgrimage through Europe and Asia....