The Project Gutenberg EBook of Through Siberia and Manchuria By Rail, by
Oliver George Ready

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Title: Through Siberia and Manchuria By Rail

Author: Oliver George Ready

Release Date: January 7, 2009 [EBook #27733]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Through Siberia and Manchuria By Rail

BY

OLIVER G. READY

AUTHOR OF
"_Life and Sport in China_"

NOTE

_This short account of my journey from London to Shanghai by way
of the Siberian Railway was at first intended for private
circulation only, in order to meet the enquiries of numerous
personal friends.

Now, however, that war has broken out between Russia and Japan,
and that it may be years before this, the longest railway in the
world, is again open to international traffic, I feel that any
information, however slight, concerning so stupendous an
undertaking, as well as about the remote region which it
traverses, may be of interest to the general public.

I wish to emphasize that much of what is herein described was
seen only from the windows of a moving train, and must therefore
be lacking in that accuracy and detail which closer inspection
could alone insure.

The Russian words on the cover_ [Russian: KTO IDET'?] _signify
"who goes there"?, and the Chinese characters represent my
surname. The Russian cross at the end, is that of the original
Greek Church._

_Shanghai, 29th February, 1904._

EASTWARD HO!

I left Charing Cross on the _15th October, 1903_, by the 10 a.m.
boat-train for Dover. As we glided on I mentally said good-bye to
familiar scenes, for I was outward bound, to put in another five years'
service under the dragon flag.

At Dover we went aboard the Belgian _rapide_ "Ville de Douvres" and in
ten minutes were streaming at twenty miles an hour through the shipping
on our way across Channe