Harmony Express by Thomas Bird <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The book being reviewed was penned by a local author and so should resonate with Wenvoe residents. Although he was born and raised in Penarth, his parents Bernice and Bob Bird moved to the village some years ago and when he returns from his base in east Asia, it is to Wenvoe that he comes. He writes for the South China Morning Post and the Taipei Times, and he has contributed to many travel books including the Rough Guides to the Philippines, Thailand and China. This is a wonderfully descriptive travel book that deals not only about the author\u2019s travels in China by rail, but how he opens up the whole China experience about the people he travels with or encounters along the way and their beer, food, pop music, a bit of romance here and there \u2013 the whole package in fact. He compares and contrasts the ultra-modernity of the new mega-cities with the almost feudal existence in the rural areas. And when he gets to Tibet, well what a world he describes for us. Tony Hodge<\/p>\n Harmony Express by Thomas Bird The book being reviewed was penned by a local author and so should resonate with Wenvoe residents. Although he was born and raised in Penarth, his parents Bernice and Bob Bird moved to the village some years ago and when he returns from his base in east Asia, it is to Wenvoe that he comes. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-3J2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15336,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15336","url_meta":{"origin":14324,"position":0},"title":"“This must be the place” by Maggie O\u2019Farrell","author":"Alan Williams","date":"9th April 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\"This must be the place\" by Maggie O\u2019Farrell The plot of this book is a love story between Daniel, a professor of linguistics and Claudette, a famous film star, who has decided to vanish from public gaze. Each chapter is like a short story, introducing a new, believable character. By\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for May 2025"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for May 2025","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=421"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5013,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5013","url_meta":{"origin":14324,"position":1},"title":"September Report","author":"Alan Williams","date":"29th September 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"WENVOE COMMUNITY LIBRARY Tel: 02920 594176 \u2013 during opening hours or wenvoelibrary@outlook.com Like and follow us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com\/WenvoeCommunityLibrary For general enquiries email us at wenvoelibrary@ outlook.com Village Show Saturday September 8th Despite the inclement weather, we managed to raise \u00a3150 for the Library. We\u2019d like to convey a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Community Hub"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Community Hub","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8584,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8584","url_meta":{"origin":14324,"position":2},"title":"Walking and Talking Book Review","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st November 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Page Turners 'Novel' Approach to Book Reviewing Due to the current Welsh government lockdown restrictions on people meeting inside, the Page Turners have had to think of novel (great pun, Babs) ways of keeping in touch. As inclement weather ruled out meeting in a garden, as on two previous\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Picture1-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15389,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15389","url_meta":{"origin":14324,"position":3},"title":"Celebration of Wenvoe Scouting","author":"Alan Williams","date":"9th April 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Celebration of Wenvoe Scouting and Review of Last 12 Months 7pm Tuesday 1st April Wenvoe Community Centre g https:\/\/www.scouts.org.uk\/ or email me for a chat. Waiting list contact 1stwenvoe.join@penarthanddistrict.org.uk \u00a0 Community members, scout parents, family and carers are invited to join us in the Hall to learn more about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for May 2025"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for May 2025","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=421"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Picture2.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15456,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15456","url_meta":{"origin":14324,"position":4},"title":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group Summer Birdwatch","author":"Alan Williams","date":"4th May 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group WENVOE WILDLIFE GROUP SUMMER BIRDWATCH SUNDAY 18TH - SATURDAY 24TH MAY Many What\u2019s On readers will recall that they took part in the RSPB Birdwatch in January this year and the Wenvoe Wildlife Group were given people\u2019s findings to assist us in learning about birds in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for May 2025"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for May 2025","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=421"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Picture5-1-296x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7909,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7909","url_meta":{"origin":14324,"position":5},"title":"Thanks for Making My Travels Easy","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd July 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks for Making My Travels Easy \u00a0 As someone who has spent many happy hours walking the footpaths around Wenvoe during lockdown I would like to thank the people who make my travels easy: The walk leaders of Wenvoe Walkers who have shown so many of us the local routes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14324"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14325,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14324\/revisions\/14325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nThat\u2019s the introduction, here\u2019s the review.<\/p>\n
\nSoon after starting to read the book, and knowing next to nothing of this vast country, I decided that I needed a map to put the places mentioned into geographical context. After some research I lit upon the Periplus Travel Map of China (published in Singapore) which assisted me enormously.
\nAnd what journeys Bird takes us on as he traverses the rail network (and by bus where there is no railway). He treats us with his insights about the most overwhelming of the new megalopolises to the somewhat edge of existence habitations elsewhere. It matters not that some of these rail routes were initially constructed by the French in their Indo China Empire days or along the super highspeed maglev show stoppers at the cutting edge of modernity.
\nHe presents a writing style that blends the narratives of genre defining travel writers \u2013 from Bill Bryson\u2019s laugh out loud to the offerings of others: Bruce Chatwin (What Am I Doing Here) and Paul Theroux (The Great Railway Bazaar). It is to be noted that both of the latter wrote about the region as it existed some decades earlier, so another compare and contrast exercise naturally ensues. And if this book goes into a second edition, then I suggest that it includes a map of the salient cities and some photographs.<\/p>\n
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