Travel in China is fraught with many challenges but none are insurmountable. China, being one of the largest countries in the world spans a range of climates and topography from the warm sub-tropics in the south east, across vast deserts and grasslands in the north and the year round snow capped glacial mountains of the Himalayas in the west. It's a country whose population officially includes more than fifty minority groups, speaking just as many languages but unofficially this is probably much higher. It's a nation of people that in theory all read the same written language and whose understanding more often than not is that we foreigners can all read it too.

China's beauty lies not just in the majesty of her mountains or the vastness of her grasslands and deserts or the raging waters of her mighty rivers or the richness of the rice terraces, but in the peoples that populate this most populous of nations. China is so much more than The Forbidden City, The Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors and the Three Gorges or her any of many misty, mythical mountains. China, unlike any other nation in the Orient, having remained off limits to the outside world for centuries, her mysteries hidden behind closed doors, now offers us an invitation. Today she hides little from those with a desire to meet with her face to face.

Like the three mighty rivers that feed China's heartland, rushing from the west on their long eastbound journey to the sea, China has also embarked on another journey of a mammoth scale, rushing headlong into this Century. China's national infrastructure has undergone rapid changes in recent years making it one of the easiest countries in which to travel. The biggest drawback to this of course is the competition and increased demand nationally, especially during peak periods for access to these facilities to and from popular destinations. There is currently an awakening amongst the Chinese with a growing number of domestic tourists choosing the freedom of independent travel which is now an option for them.

China today, thanks to the legacy of earlier foreign interests has one of the most efficient and growing rail systems anywhere in the world, daily handling millions of passengers nationwide. Overnight sleeper trains offer the luxury you'd expect on the more famous Orient Express. Even more impressive is road passenger transport, with luxury overnight sleeper coaches between tourist destinations or smaller local buses and minivans

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