Paul Theroux · 1988 · rail

Theroux boards a train in London with a tour group and does not stop until he has crossed Europe, Soviet Russia and Mongolia and spent a year riding nearly every railway in Deng Xiaoping's China - from the Xinjiang deserts to the frozen forests of Manchuria to the southern ports - before leaving the rails altogether for the wild drive over the high plateau to Lhasa.

1. 1
   London

   The departure platform: Theroux joins a tour group at Victoria and sets off for China the slow way, by rail across the whole of Europe and Asia.

2. 2
   Moscow

   Across Poland and Russia to Moscow, and onto the long haul east - days of birches, steppe and station platforms on the Trans-Siberian line.

3. 3
   Ulan Bator

   Leaving the Trans-Siberian at Lake Baikal for the Trans-Mongolian, Theroux crosses the Gobi to spend May Day in the Mongolian capital.

4. 4
   Peking

   By way of the steam yards of Datong into Peking, his recurring base camp in a China convulsed by Deng-era reform.

5. 5
   Shanghai

   The Shanghai express south through the crowded heart of the country to its greatest city.

6. 6
   Canton

   The fast train to Canton, boom town of the new China, all commerce and demolition.

7. 7
   Urumqi

   The Iron Rooster itself: by way of Hohhot and Lanzhou onto the long desert line through Turfan to Urumqi, deep in Uighur Xinjiang - the train that gives the book its name.

8. 8
   Kunming

   Back east and then south by stages - the terracotta army at Xian, the express to Chengdu, the halt at Emei Shan - to the mild plateau city of Kunming.

9. 9
   Guilin

   The fast train to Guilin and its limestone hills, already thick with tourists.

10. 10
    Harbin

    North by way of Changsha and Mao's birthplace at Shaoshan, then the international express into Manchuria - Harbin in deep winter, and the slow train on to the ice forests of Langxiang.

11. 11
    Dalian

    The boat train down the Liaodong peninsula to the port of Dalian.

12. 12
    Yantai

    Across the mouth of the Bohai Gulf by sea on the Lake of Heaven to the Shandong shore.

13. 13
    Qingdao

    The slow train to Qingdao, the old German treaty port of breweries and villas.

14. 14
    Xiamen

    South again through Shanghai on the night train to Xiamen, the old seagoing port of Amoy.

15. 15
    Golmud

    The Qinghai local through Xining to Golmud, the dusty end of the line - in 1986 the railway to Tibet stopped here.

16. 16
    Lhasa

    Where the rails give out, the road begins: the hair-raising drive over the Kunlun and across the plateau with the luckless Mr Fu, ending the year in Lhasa under the Potala.