Description
In 1844, Evariste Régis Huc (1813-1860), a French Lazarist missionary, was ordered to explore the area surrounding the mission at Si-Wang (Hsi-wan-tse), about 200 kilometres to the northwest of Peking (Beijing). He and his companion, Joseph Gabet, disguised themselves by shaving their heads and taking the yellow robes of the Tibetan lamas. From Dolon-nor and Kwei-hwa-ch'eng (Hohhot) they went to Tang-Kiul, then Llhasa, where they were expelled, and on to Ch'eng-tu, where they found a warrant had been issued for their arrest. By junk, down the Kan River, they finally reached Canton. When first published, many thought Huc's Travels was a work of fiction.
Source
Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China during the years 1844-5-6 / by M. Huc ; translated from the French by W. Hazlitt (Chicago, Ill. : Open Court Publishing Company, 1898), v.2.