I've been an enthusiastic, tolerably knowledgeable Sinophile since my early teens, when I discovered Chinese art, and adopted Lin Yutang's The Art Of Living as my personal philosophy...

And I have naturally viewed with sorrow and anguish the Chinese history of the last two centuries, from the Opium Wars to Mao's insane, sadistic reduction of Tibet. But recent events in the progress of what I think we may call Chinese Civilization have lifted my heart and given me hope--and nothing more so than the development of the spectacular, nay astonishing, high speed rail transport which has flourished in the last couple of decades in China: peacefully, through their native economic and technological genius, uniting what is after all essentially the Chinese Empire, and assuring the national prosperity of China for all time to come.  A sign of which I take to be:  On July 27, 2017 a cargo transport train loaded with clothing, furniture and electronic goods left Ganzhou in eastern China for Kazakhstan, with an estimated time of arrival of twelve days.