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Riding the Iron Rooster Paul Theroux

Riding the Iron Rooster By Paul Theroux

Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux


$25.99
Condition - Very Good
Only 4 left

Summary

A description of a year spent travelling around China by train, filled with details of people and sights which the author encountered, from the searing hot Gobi desert to the Western Xinjiang of the ice-bound cities of the Siberian border; along the South China Sea and to the edge of Tibet.

Riding the Iron Rooster Summary

Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China by Paul Theroux

If you want to understand China, take the train: as the Chinese do. The author decided to do just that - from the searing hot Gobi desert to the Western Xinjiang of the ice-bound cities of the Siberian border, along the South China Sea and to the edge of Tibet - and this book is an account of that year. Paul Theroux joined a tour that made its way by rail from London to Mongolia, stopping in Paris, Warsaw and in the Soviet Union. Reaching China by this unconventional overland route provided the author with much material for his book and details about who goes to China and why. Then, to Inner Mongolia and Peking and Shangai, he rode trains and discovered that in some ways China is changing radically, and in others it is still ancient and bound by tradition. An example was the Iron Rooster - an aged rattling train that continues to shudder along a four day route between Peking and distant Urumchi in China's far west. While the country produces Kentucky Fried Chicken and atom bombs, most trains still go everywhere, and the trains are crammed with Chinese tourists, who are on the move, studying and sightseeing. The book is full of Theroux's encounters with people and their talk - about Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution, about rising prices and student unrest, about their work and their worries and the possiblity of a better life elsewhere. Paul Theroux is author of "The Great Railway Bazaar", "The Old Patagonian Express", "The Kingdom by the Sea", "The Mosquito Coast" and "Doctor Slaughter". The latter two have been made into films and his novel "Picture Palace" was winner of the Whitbread Prize for Fiction.

Additional information

GOR003592829
9780241125472
0241125472
Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China by Paul Theroux
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Penguin Books Ltd
1988-09-12
512
Winner of Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 1989
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

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