I went Shanghai to the Yellow Mountains on a very old, slow sleeper train. It was basically a dormitory, with bunks three high. And you don't want to know about

I went Shanghai to the Yellow Mountains on a very old, slow sleeper train. It was basically a dormitory, with bunks three high. And you don't want to know about the bathrooms - it's really just a hole in the floor, falling onto the tracks. But even so, it was a wonderful experience. The Chinese landscape is nothing short of awesome. And the culture that unfolded was completely unknown to me, so constantly interesting. One thing that really made me take notice was the wide range of people. On the way to the Shanghai train station, we had walked by a Lamborghini dealership (I don't recall ever having seen even one of these in the USA) - there's a not-insignificant population of filthy rich people in and around Shanghai. But on the train we saw people peasants using an ox to plow a rice paddy of only a fraction of an acre. The degree of inequality was hugely wider than America or any other nation I've seen. EDIT: the Shanghai airport maglev train was an interesting experience just to say I've gone 300+mph on a train, but otherwise totally boring.