Introduction

In the summer of 1997, Drew Fellman showed up in Beijing, where I was then living and working. He stopped by our small newspaper office with questions. Lots of them. One was most pressing. Could we help him get an airline ticket into Tibet, one of many stops on the six week trip he would begin by car that September. I arranged a meeting with a local travel agent who was, needless to say, not too happy about being asked to fly a foreigner who spoke little Chinese into forbidden lands.

Fellman not only made it through to Tibet, but all the way to Paris. Twice. Once to get the back story and meet the locals, and once to cover the second ever running of a car race from Peking to Paris. Fellman chronicled the race, which first took place in 1907, for discovery.com. To learn about the race's history you can read more at the official rally Web site.

Some of Fellman's other pictures from the trip recently appeared in Double Take magazine and prints are availabe for purchase online from Candide Media Works, the New York online content company Fellman co-founded.

--Jonathan Landreth

A 1927 Mercedes is one the first car off the starting line at the Great Wall.	After the first days drive, the cars pull into the parking lot at Zhang Jiakou.	Police stand guard as the rally leave Zhang Jiakou.
A pair of nomadic horsemen rush by in Qinghai.	Pilgrims pray at the Johkang Temple in Lhasa.	A family of Tibetans greet the rally on the road from Lhasa.
Monks at Tashilhunpo Monastery in Xigatze, the first stop after Lhasa.	Old cars and modern contraptions. Richard Darrigo makes a satellite call near Mt. Everest.	A 1949 Cadillac sits under Mt. Everest in Tingri, Tibet.
A Rolls Royce Silver Cloud reaches the Lagpa-La Pass at 17,720 feet.	A young boy in Xigatze, Tibet sees his first Bentley.	A 1927 Bentley keeps the roads yak-free.
A rover enters a small village south of Lhasa.	The rally causes a stir outside a Hui restaurant near Qinghai lake.	Racers kick up the dust on the morning drive.