Table of Contents
Title Page
Front
1. The Train to Mongolia
2. The Inner Mongolian Express to Datong: Train Number 24
3. Night Train Number 90 to Peking
4. The Shanghai Express
5. The Fast Train to Canton
6. Train Number 324 to Hohhot and Lanzhou
7. The Iron Rooster
8. Train Number 104 to Xian
9. The Express to Chengdu
10: The Halt at Emei Shan: Train Number 209 to Kunming
11: The Fast Train to Guilin: Number 80
12: The Slow Train to Changsha and Shaoshan "Where the Sun Rises"
13: The Peking Express: Train Number 16
14: The International Express to Harbin: Train Number 17
15: The Slow Train to Langxiang: Number 295
16: The Boat Train to Dalian: Number 92
17: On the Lake of Heaven to Yantai
18: The Slow Train to Qingdao: Number 508
19: The Shandong Express to Shanghai: Train Number 234
20: The Night Train to Xiamen: Number 375
21: The Qinghai Local to Xining: Train Number 275
22: The Train to Tibet
...
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Riding the Iron Rooster
Paul Theroux
By Train Through China
"Theroux's genius is in his clear-eyed rendition of a fresh world and the deeper observations he attaches toit." —
A MARINER BOOK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
First Mariner Books edition 2006
Copyright © 1988 by Paul Theroux
All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from
this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
Visit our Web site: www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com.
Theroux, Paul.
Riding the iron rooster : by train through China / Paul Theroux.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Putnam's, c1988.
ISBN-13: 978-0-618-65897-8 (pbk.)
ISBN-10; 0-618-65897-1 (pbk.)
1. Theroux, Paul—Travel—China. 2. China—Description
and travel. 3. Railroad travel—China. I. Title.
DS712.T446 2006
915.1'0458—dc22 2006028745
Printed in the United States of America
MV 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
CONTENTS
1. The Train to Mongolia 15
2. The Inner Mongolian Express to Datong: Train Number 24 65
3. Night Train Number 90 to Peking 77
4. The Shanghai Express 104
5. The Fast Train to Canton 145
6. Train Number 324 to Hohhot and Lanzhou 166
7. The Iron Rooster 185
8. Train Number 104 to Xian 214
9. The Express to Chengdu 229
10. The Halt at Emei Shan: Train Number 209 to Kunming 244
11. The Fast Train to Guilin: Number 80 261
12. The Slow Train to Changsha and Shaoshan "Where the Sun Rises" 277
13. The Peking Express: Train Number 16 290
14. The International Express to Harbin: Train Number 17 311
15. The Slow Train to Langxiang: Number 295 324
16. The Boat Train to Dalian: Number 92 343
17. On the
18. The Slow Train to Qingdao: Number 508 373
19. The Shandong Express to Shanghai: Train Number 234 385
20. The Night Train to Xiamen: Number 375 396
21. The Qinghai Local to Xining: Train Number 275 415
22. The Train to Tibet 435
A peasant must stand a long time
on a hillside with his mouth open
before a roast duck flies in.
—CHINESE PROVERB
The movements which work revolutions
in the world are born out of the dreams and
visions in a peasants heart on a hillside.
—JAMES JOYCE,
1. The Train to Mongolia
The bigness of China makes you wonder. It is more like a whole world than a mere country. "All beneath the sky" (
The railway was the answer. It was the best way of traveling to Peking (Beijing) from London, where I happened to be. Every modern account of Chinese travel I had read seemed weakened by jet lag—an unhappy combination of fatigue and insomnia. "We were very tired there," is a common remark by travelers to China, the gasping sightseers and bargain hunters. This desire to sit down could be maddening in a country where everyone else was full of beans. Wasn't that the whole point of the Chinese—that they were always on the go? Even after five thousand years of continuous civilization they were still at it. And one of the lessons of Chinese history is that they never know when to stop.
