"all genuine knowledge originates in direct experience", one Mao quote that make sense for the traveler. I'm in Chengdu and it's not pronounced the way I've been saying since the travel planning stage back in August last year; more like Chung-do. Back in Beijing I had some real problems uploading my photos on to the website and now after a little understanding and much probing I suspect there might be a blocking of such activity. There is a real possibility that I'll have to wait till my one night stopover in Bangkok before there will be any pictures from China. Had a ten hour delay for my sleeper train from Xian to Chengdu; it's a real mark of how mellow I have become because the whole wait and train journey turned out to be an adventure and opportunity to meet and talk with some great people, both western and Chinese travelers. How remarkable - never got stressed for a moment. In the waiting area assigned for sleeper passengers the large screen TV is blaring out CCTV. It's so loud and obtrusive and in Chinese. A friendly guide for a Dutch tour group explains heads of state for China and Taiwan are meeting in Beijing; I can't help thinking that it is all a propaganda stunt; the real news or truth being hidden. There is an English language news channel run by the local network; it's the same manipulated format with very little international news of much import. It's hard to accept but I believe all media is strictly monitored or more accurately sweetened. There are no international newspapers and even the BBC news website is blocked. No Lonely Planet or any other guidebooks were on sale in Beijing that contains sensitive political/historical information. One special bookshop, called The Foreign Language Bookshop had copies of the China guide hidden in a cupboard. There was no explanation as to why this was when I pushed the political issue. There seems to be no reference for such questions. On the train I drink green tea, lie back in my bunk and watch the front of the train from my rear carriage curve through an ugly non-descript city. Sometimes the cities, or parts of them have a blandness that must have come from that Soviet style of concrete architecture. I hope this doesn't sound negative because my travels in China are far from that. It is constantly fascinating and so fantastically different from my expectations. Every day is filled with the unexpected and contradictions in my knowledge of this country. I do need to carry my wee Mandarin phrasebook though. It is easy to travel but very little English is spoken and almost everything is signposted in Chinese characters only - starting to recognise a few of the most common ones and avoiding some others like gou rou (dog meat-狗肉)