One sharp dawn early last spring, seven clumsy, curious motor cars lumbered out of Beirut, Syria, while camels yawned. Big-nosed Levantine chauffeurs behind the wheels of sleek limousines laughed derisively as they whizzed past this caravan plodding East. Soon the caravan left the road and struck out into the desert, where limousines could not go. ...
This French expedition, backed by Motorman Andre Citroen, led by Explorer Georges-Marie Haardt, was headed for Peiping, China, 8,000 miles away. Before it lay deserts, wastelands, mountains no motor car, few men, had ever climbed. That was...