Travel writers' trips of a lifetime
Winter 2014
To celebrate 10 years of Ultratravel, the Telegraph's luxury-travel magazine, contributors recall their most extraordinary travel experiences.
The Peking to Paris classic-car rally, Michelle Jana Chan. Driving a 1940 Ford Coupe, my co-driver Mike Reeves and I crossed the start line at the Great Wall of China. [...]

Moscow a-go-go
January 2014
You’re sleeping with...a KGB-CIA double agent. Stay at: Hotel Nikol'skaya Kempinski Moscow. There’s a whiff of deal-making in the lobby of Kempinski’s newest, glitziest Msocow hotel, bang opposite FSB HQ (formerly the KGB) and within whispering range of Red Square. Interiors are Belle Époque bling: gilded oak, marble and velvet. [...]

From Russia, with lust
November 2013
Whipped by branches, they said, traditional rural Russian-style. And -- “yes, no, yes, again, harder, HARDER” -- they were right. I shut out the world and its midwinter blizzards and cosied up inside this Moscow hideaway. There were steamy saunas, giant tubs of ice-cold water and chill-out cabins stocked with pitchers of traditional homemade beer called kvass. [...]

Peking to Paris classic car rally 2013: 'Let’s make a U-turn and do it all again'
July 6, 2013
It was a cold and wet afternoon somewhere between Saratov and Voronezh, Russia. As we drove around a corner, we saw an elderly couple standing on the side of the road in the rain. With one hand, the woman was pointing a camera at us; with the other, she was waving and cheering us on. Beside her the man was holding up a yellow banner. [...]

Peking to Paris classic car rally 2013: Highs and lows
June 28, 2013
Scariest moment? I do not think I was ever scared for our safety but there were many times I was afraid for the well-being of Shiner, our 1940 Ford Coupe. The worst moment was on Day 6 (Ulaan Baatar to Bulgan, Mongolia) when we ended up driving through a marsh. We had to keep up our speed but that meant violently porpoising for a hundred metres. [...]

Peking to Paris classic car rally 2013: fighting for victory
June 21, 2013
From time to time I indulge myself and recall how it felt to be leading one of the world’s longest and toughest vintage car rallies. Alas, the unfiltered joy lasted only a few days - although it was during some of the most challenging driving at the start of the rally in Mongolia. That is a long time ago. It is now day 24 of this 33-day competition. [...]

Death casts shadow over classic car rally
June 13, 2013
As we approached the end of the Wednesday’s stage, we heard the news: there had been a serious accident. All competitive racing was on hold. Everyone should head directly to our hotel in Tyumen, in south-west Siberia. [...]

Peking to Paris classic car rally: And they're off...
May 30, 2013
It was one of those signature murky days in Beijing. As we headed down to the hotel car park it started to drizzle. In the flat grey light of dawn, among the row of vintage Bentleys and classic Mercedes, was our car, a 1940 Ford Coupe nicknamed Shiner, ready for a journey of nearly 8,000 miles to Paris. [...]

Revving up for the greatest classic rally
December 29, 2012
It was 15 years ago when I was working as a news journalist in Beijing that I heard about the Peking-to-Paris Motor Challenge, one of the longest and toughest rallies undertaken in a classic car. The first race had taken place 90 years earlier in 1907 and was entirely off-road, participants travelling without passports or maps or recourse to garages en route. [...]

Pick the world's new wonders
June 16, 2007
An ancient list is being updated, through a modern worldwide poll. Michelle Jana Chan looks at the 21 contenders. On July 7, there will be a new version of the Seven Wonders of the World, a list that has always captured the imagination of travellers. [...]