The keynote of this lively, shrewd account of an unusual journey across China lies with the authors remark that, to his mind, ‘one should never miss a chance to see something new.’ The fact he was to be in Moscow in the Summer of 1958 for the final meeting of the Special Committee which has organised the International Geophysical Year seemed to Dr Wilson an obvious chance to travel to Peking by the Trans-Siberian Railway and to visit the interior of China. His unique position in the scientific world gave him access to people and places that most travellers in China will never see. (Goodreads)
