I have always tried to keep brand names and products out of this blog. Now here’s the exception: the following series entitled “TLW Literature” is going to be about books related to travel.

I am going to say it right away, I am not a great fan of travel guides like Lonely Planet, the Rough Guide, Eyewitness and the likes:

- They help create a boring illusion of original travel: Ever been to one of the backpacker bars in 阳朔 (Yangshuo)? Or run into the same fellow traveler in EVERY one of your destinations?

- They have their own subculture and lingo that I find very annoying: “Tuck into fiery Indian curries, get adventurous with a local dish from a road side stall and gulp down a hearty bowl of Japanese ramen” – WTF??

- They simplify the world: But the world has never been simple. It’s NOT there for the dumb and the lazy to conquer.

…

That being said, here is my first TLW Literature find:

Slow but good.

A slow read. The 434 pages of my German edition are divided into 224 chapters, each dealing with a place or phenomenon. There is no storyline and no strict chronological order of events. Instead, MP tells the reader about the things that he has either seen or heard about, and which he finds noteworthy. Some parts consist of mere fable and hearsay, while others seem fairly correct and paint a vivid picture of the world at the time.

The famous 卢沟桥 (Lugou or Marco-Polo bridge) is one of those examples: Even if MP possibly only recorded what other travelers had been telling him, and even though the structure itself has undergone  substantial renovations over the last 8 centuries, still… the bridge that MP describes in chapter 58 is really there, and one can almost feel the stories flow along the ancient Silk Roads serveral hundred years ago.

That being said, the book is still a slow read: I struggled with the boring stuff, the place names and with the historical figures. Also, I felt a bit distant from MP himself, except for the parts where his humour shines through (like in chapter 106, when he tells us of an area where all young girls are promiscuous and says: “That is a fine country for young men from sixteen to twenty-four to go to!”)

The historical moments and the humorous parts gain this book a favorable rating.

A slow but good read.