Long before China became synonymous with sleek bullet trains and futuristic railway stations, travelling across the country by rail was an adventure in itself.
More than thirty years ago, Laurus Travel founder Julius Yan picked up Paul Theroux’s acclaimed travel classic “Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China”. Published in 1988, the book chronicles Theroux’s year-long journey through China during the mid-1980s, when long-distance train travel meant crowded compartments, overnight journeys, coal smoke, and an intimate glimpse into a country that was only beginning to open to the outside world. It went on to win the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and remains one of the finest railway travelogues ever written.
For Julius, the book was more than an engaging travel narrative. Having begun his career as a tour guide in China in 1985, much of what Theroux described felt remarkably familiar. Reading the book was like revisiting a world he already knew through another traveller’s eyes.
Over the following four decades, Julius witnessed one of the most remarkable transportation transformations in modern history. The slow trains that once took days to cross the country have given way to one of the world’s largest and most advanced high-speed rail networks.
Today’s travellers can still discover the China that fascinated Theroux, but under dramatically different circumstances. Modern high-speed trains glide between major cities at speeds of up to 350 km/h. Stations resemble international airports, journeys are measured in hours rather than days, and comfort has become the norm rather than the exception.
Yet the essence of rail travel remains unchanged.
The train is still one of the best ways to experience China, not because it is the only practical option, as it often was in Theroux’s day, but because it reveals the country in a way that flying never can. Through the train window, mountains, rivers, villages, megacities, and everyday life unfold naturally, offering a perspective that no airport can provide.
For anyone who has read “Riding the Iron Rooster”, travelling on China’s high-speed rail network today offers a rare opportunity to witness just how profoundly the country has changed within a single generation.
And for those experiencing China for the first time, it remains one of the most rewarding ways to discover the country.
