Black Horse Odyssey

Search for the Lost City of Rome in China

Plot

David Harris has discovered the remains of a Roman city in the heart of the Gobi desert. His interest was aroused by Horace's Odes, and by the papers of Professor Homer Hasenpflug Dubs, Professor of Chinese at Oxford University, relating to the city. Harris set out from Australia to search for Li-jien, a city built by the Romans in China 1300 years before Marco Polo entered Cathay. Harris was alone and an amateur; he neither spoke the language nor understood the Chinese way of doing things; furthermore, he had precious little money. The Chinese bureaucracy instinctively mistrusted him both as a western messenger claiming special knowledge of Chinese history and as one who wished to enter a closed military zone.