Few people asked "do you like to travel," respond with a No Dry sometimes those who hesitate are those who traveling on business can not take anymore of a nomadic life, pathological or couch potatoes. Whether a trip halfway around the world or looking for a restaurant behind the house, the human kind like to travel. Of course, when going to these reasons are varied: disconnect from the routine, the feeling of adventure (real or pretend it is) maybe visiting exotic places, realize a dream that has for so long (ever thought "maybe a I can allow my day around the world?), meet interesting people, experience outside the lines (these are the ones to "Hello dear, pass two months in Africa") ... and many many others.
That said, affianchiamoci my journey by train:

I start from Shanghai, with the only reasonable hope that someone will find a ticket to Beijing, even accepting a standing ticket for travel 48 (then fortunately turning into a seat "hard seat"). The only experience a feeling of content with crap like that sense of adventure.

See my friends in Beijing, go to a land shrouded in meditative charm, the same travel by train from the sensation of taking a break from routine and beautiful holiday in May.
For the first 24 travel, traveling west, the landscape becomes more desert, passing through the walls of Xian (terracotta warriors of the city) and Liaoning, eventually coming to Xinning, the capital of the province north of Tibet. We expected the second night ( Video heap of humanity, 1.94 Mb, DivX Player 6 needed ) and then to 5.30 in the morning you get to Golmund (the "gate of Tibet" if you saw the movie "7 years ..."). We are now in Tibet, and from there it goes up to about 4000 meters across the "Plateau": vast desert, beautiful sunrise.

Me and Olaf, my traveling companion, we are planted in the dining car from Golmund, enjoying every minute. After a few hours of lunar landscapes, views too large for a photograph, scattered between desert and green Yak's time for lunch, which also corresponds to the step Tanggula, 5000 meters of inebriation. The oxygen machines, running from the gates of Tibet, pumping non-stop, without specific symptoms of too high an altitude not resist from trying the stick disposable. After a few hours here we are at Lake Namtsu, phenomenal spectacle of giant high-altitude water, a mirror on the sky. The joy of discovery combined with breathtaking views is one of the reasons I wanted to train at all costs.

Were not enough, we add two factors: the Chinese train and feel like an adventure drive to learn. In our compartment, we were the only foreigners, I do not remember having talked so much about Chinese life, and this added to the Chinese culture where privacy is an unknown concept, such as questions to ask or not to a stranger ... Well, everyone knew everything of us, all they told us all about them and the ceremony two days has inevitably ended with the ritual of visiting cards. So, the neighbor who tells you the scppatelle with his wife, the cop drunk at a restaurant that plays with you with "the cards of the revolution" (regular poker cards with the highest combined with pictures of Mao propaganda), the group of phantom Hong Kong actresses who go on holiday in Lhasa, the conductor that just could not find a hole to sleep, but we offered him a beer the same (in the photo is not him, but his deputy) ..

All this is an experience, and I thank my year in Beijing for teaching me the basics to communicate with this crazy, "random" people of phenomenal cock (yes, that word debauched the article, you will be unable published on the Sun). Had I not known I would have lived half the Chinese experience, however, talking with the Russians in Vladivostok in perpetuity beer, Greg has been traveling throughout Asia in his sabbatical year, Anne, who teaches English in Xian, and two great Italians who working in Beijing, one in the Italian Chamber of Commerce in China that was my first semi-finished here. The small world after all, and for foreigners in China, sometimes even more.

It is eight o'clock in the evening sunset. Finally, unfortunately, the journey is over. We are in Lhasa, in a station built pharaonic "Tibetan-style" (??), our guide welcomes us to take us to the hotel.

It 'time to bring together the company, finding those who arrived by plane. The trip Beijing - Lhasa say, I'm glad I did and do it again, definitely worth it was worth. You probably will not do it again, but we are in Lhasa, we did it! Start my first trip to Tibet.