Robin Hanbury-Tenison

“Page 121:
We left Xi'an through a fine gateway in the massive walls and plunged at once into a ghastly industrial suburb. I found my mood, my whole attitude towards China often changed as swiftly, so that I sometimes alternated between awestruck admiration and outright disgust. Their past and present attainments are outstanding. The level of culture reached repeatedly during succssive dynasties was so superior and produced so many exquisite objects. Life at court must have represented at many times civilization of a very high order during eras when most of the rest of the world was producing nothing remotely comparable. But we are told, and unquestionably it was true much of the time, that, like many empires, it was based on great cruelty, slavery and the oppression of the vast majority of the people.”
― Robin Hanbury-Tenison, A Ride Along the Great Wall

“Rose Wilder Lane’s own description of her first view of the mountains surrounding the Shala Valley is hard to beat: Like thin sharp rocks stood on edge, they covered hundreds of miles with every variation of light and shadow, and we looked across their tops to a faraway wave of snow that broke high against the sky. The depths between the mountains were hazy blue; out of the blueness sharp cliffs and huge flat slopes of rock thrust upward, streaked with the rose and purple and Chinese-green of decomposing shale, and from the tops a thousand streams poured downward, threading them with silver-white. A low continuous murmur rose to us – the sound of innumerable waterfalls, softened by immeasurable distance.”
― Robin Hanbury-Tenison, Land of Eagles: Riding Through Europe's Forgotten Country