It is the profound cultural differences that make travelling in China amongst the Chinese so interesting. Writing in the Roman alphabet attracts major attention. When scribbling in my diary on trains, I would regularly attract a crowd of onlookers, in much the same way a Chinese calligraphist would outside China. They are also keen to find out where you’re from and, most importantly, what you are eating, food being such a vital component of Chinese life.
The food on Chinese trains is brilliant. An almost constant stream of trolleys plies the corridors with trays of freshly cooked noodles or hot box lunches to tempt you with their delicious smells. This is all part of the entrepreneurial culture unleashed by the opening up of the Chinese economy. Even the train staff get involved. On one journey, the guard appeared with a basket of socks and gave what we assumed to be an extremely polished sales pitch in Chinese. His “indestructo-socks”, made from a weird material, were indeed impressive. He raked them with a metal brush, burned them with a cigarette lighter and swung his whole weight on one from the luggage rack above. Then, he punched the tickets.
Despite the incredible distances, you can traverse from one side of China to the other in a little over 24 hours, Chinese trains run with phenomenal punctuality. You can, more or less, set your watch by them and, despite recent improvements in air safety, it still feels a lot safer on a train than a plane.
Japan: Go slow at 400kmph
Perhaps the pinnacle of the modern world’s slow travel experience, Japan offers an almost unbelievable level of incongruous speed and efficiency. Shinkansen “Bullet” trains streak through the beautiful green mountains and cities of the Land of the Rising Sun at speeds approaching a bewildering 400kmph. Okay, so it’s not exactly “slow” travel at that kind of velocity, but it’s still better environmentally than getting on a plane. The track is so smooth you could almost be flying anyway.
After the informal chaos of Mongolia and the in-your-face directness of the Chinese, the deferential respect culture of Japan comes as a not altogether unpleasant surprise. As attendants walk through the train, they bow on entering and leaving each carriage; if you’ve bought an incorrect ticket on the metro, the staff are almost apologetic—in contrast to the brusque interrogation you might receive in Russia.
Japan is also well served by ferries from China, South Korea and Russia, and travel by sea is also invariably cheaper than by plane. I took ferries across the East China Sea from Tianjin to Kobe and then back to Shanghai via Osaka. Compared with the stormy ferry journey in Europe, these were pond-like voyages, the calm waters glassy and clear under violent blue skies as we passed through picturesque archipelagos of rocky green islets.
The other delight of travel in Japan lies in the vending machines. No country on earth does modern sophistication like the Japanese and the vending machine culture represents the peak of this innovation. Icy cold or piping hot drinks and tasty snacks are available 24x7 wherever you go, so you need never be hungry or thirsty as long as you have small change in your pocket.