Not so much a travelogue - more a manual on how to deal with burocracy or a least learn to live with it. This book tracks the attempt of three Americans to travel from Beijing to Xingjian Province in the footsteps of a couple of 30's adventurers. Their problem is no one in China can imagine why they would possibly want to and it becomes an uphill struggle to buy train tickets, get travel permits and arrange trucks to get them through part of China that borders Tibet. For one of the travellers the interminable waiting around for the paperwork becomes too much and he manages to get a bus back to Beijing.

Most memorable for me was the evocation of the cold misery of travelling for eight hours on a spit soaked bus floor and the process of buying a train ticket.