Set to go

Tomorrow I fly to Beijing to begin this adventure. Jeanne is already in Beijing, getting more excited by the minute. She woke me up with a phone call at 7 a.m. this morning, unable to contain her enthusiasm for our journey.

Here's a brief outline of where we'll be going and when:

Trip One, July 19-21: Xanadu. Xanadu is a one-day drive from Beijing. Nothing is left but ruins of the sumptuous summer palace of Kublai Khan, visited and described by Marco Polo. Marco called it Chandu, and said "There is at this place a very fine marble Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and astonishment." The Chinese called it "Shangdu," meaning upper capital, and it was the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who referred to it as Xanadu. The palace and magnificent gardens were destroyed by the Chinese when they overthrew the Mongols in 1368, and now it is so obscure that most Chinese tour guides don't even know where it is.

Trip Two, July 22 - 24: Inner Mongolia. We will fly to the ugly industrial city of Baotou and hire a car to take us to the Chinggis Khan Mausoleum near Tongsheng in the Ordos Desert. A special tribe of Mongols was assigned to care for this mausoleum, which has a fascinating history. Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, who died in 1227, is not buried there, but the site is sacred to the Mongols.

Trip Three, July 25-31: Outer Mongolia. We will fly to the capital city, Ulaan Baatar, then go on a five-day road trip to the ancient capital of the Mongol Empire, Karakorum. It is in ruins, too, but many of its bricks and tiles were used to build the nearby Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zuu. We will also visit a wild horse preserve, where Mongolia's truly wild horses were rescued from near-extinction. We expect to stay in yurts, known in Mongolia as gers, and drink plenty of airag, the national drink of fermented mare's milk.

I'm getting more excited by the minute, too. It's 7 a.m. in Beijing - maybe I'll call Jeanne!