Down the Yangtze

In 1980, Theroux travelled 1500 miles downstream from Chungking to Shanghai, using a variety of boats. His fellow travellers were millionaire Americans, and he was on the move most of the time.

This is a short book, originally published as Sailing Through China, but published again in the Penguin 60s series as Down the Yangtze. It really is more of an essay or article than a book.

Having said that, it really is classic Theroux travel writing. He is miserable, he is negative, he mocks his fellow travellers as much as he takes in his surroundings - P5 - “Half of them had been to China before, and knew their way around Inner Mongolia. The rest were novices, and called Mao “Mayo”, and confused Thailand with Taiwan, and Fuji with Fiji. They were as tenacious and practical as the Chinese, and just as ethnocentric, just much funnier and better at cards.”

His own summary at the end says “Any change in China would be for the worse, which is a pity because it seems so bad when I sailed through it.”