Xanadu

I think it was the female Australian singer-turned-actress of twenty years ago (I forget her name perhaps fortuitously) who released Xanadu, the album. The palace of Xanadu was in fact the reidence of Kublai Kahn the Mongol tribal leader who ruled over the largest nation the world has ever known Not only was China subjugated in its entirity by foreigners (the only time to date if we exlude Microsoft) but the Mongol empire stretched all the way acoss the Steppes to Hungary. I was just in Inner Mongolia, a short train trip, well not so short at their speed, from the ruins of this palace. It seems exotic to say "I survived Mongolia", hence my sffort. The seven and a half hour trip from Chengde to Chifeng must be the best bargain in my travelling career. It cost just under three dollars and I would have paid a hundred. The scenery was superb, the weather great, the friendship making with PLA soldiers and a female student a great way to pass time, and there we have it. Chifeng apparently hosts equestrian events in the Olympics and I have been invited! Horsing around will come naturally although horse trading will probably lose me my shirt to the wise locals. Did I tell you about my fly on the wall listening-in to a conversation in the John Bull pub in Beijing? Some high flyers lead by a know-it-all Canadian were talking multi-million dollar financing for a new coal mine, provided one party could prove the geology to the other and win over the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region administration . I know the co-ordinates for this Bre-Ex type find. Any bidders?