The Road to Miran by Christa Paula HarperCollins $306 THIS book, subtitled 'Travels in the Forbidden Zone of Xinjiang', is currently being given prominent display in several Hong Kong bookshops and I was keen to find out whether this was because it was indeed a piece of hot property or because it needed this kind of effort to sell any copies at all.
Christa Paula was a post-graduate student in Pittsburg when her supervisor introduced her to the 2,000-year-old paintings from Miran, pictures of mysterious origin that may conceivably display Western influences.
The last Western archaeologist to work there did so in 1914 and Paula thought it would be a good idea to travel to the area and see the site for herself.
Her professor, however, declared that it was impossible to do this as this region of China was 'closed'.
Xinjiang is the largest administrative region in the People's Republic, larger than France and Germany put together.
It's the home of the Uighur people, among others, and the celebrated Silk Road runs through its dry and thinly populated wastes. Many tourists now visit every summer, but according to Paula, her bit was forbidden to them and the site of nuclear testing grounds.