China is an old culture. A proud culture as it should be. From this writers perspective, an exotic culture. Thus my adventure to China. I contacted China Highlights, a Chinese travel agency that I had found on the Internet at Chinahighlights.com. They had the itinerary I sought. Of course Beijing was on my list. I'd heard about the Terracotta Warriors in Xian. The sheer size of this excavation and what has been found is staggering and not to be missed. I had also recently heard about a modern engineering miracle, a train which protects the fragile high alpine environment as it hurtles at over a sixty miles an hour toward Tibet through the Himalayas. Tibet. The Himalayas. A high-speed train. All of these in one grand tour. Sounded great.