UNDER THE BANYAN TREE Jan-Jun 2016 | Page 70

LAST WORDS NEWS FROM TARTARY PETER FLEMING U N D E R T H E B A N YA N T R E E 01/06 2016 News from Tartary tells the story of adventurer and travel writer Peter Fleming’s successful 3,500-mile (5,632 kilometre) journey from then-Peking (now Beijing), China to India in 1935, accompanied by Ella Maillart, considered to be one of the greatest travellers of the 20th century. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES (MAIN) “Peking had seen us off in fancy dress; Peking — in this, as in several other ways, curiously resembling Oxford — can usually be relied upon to be characteristic. Half a dozen pierrettes and apaches, in fur coats and burnt cork, suitably fantasticated our unserious departure on the midnight train. A fellow journalist, renowned for his collection of portraits of missionaries in stations likely to be bandited, took our photographs in unmistakably ghoulish manner; and against the heavy, writhing clouds of magnesium smoke the improbable captions seemed to dance…” B A N YA N T R E E LIJIANG Enjoy the luxury of the comforts of Banyan Tree Lijiang; nestled in some of the world’s most picturesque natural beauty and shadowed by the legendary Snow Jade Dragon Mountain. Referred to as the Venice of the Orient, Lijiang offers a haven for rejuvenation and restoration.