On the train to Nanning, the day before New year’s Eve (another 6 hours trip for 250 km, 150 miles) a delightful and shy little girl was getting frustrated trying to probe her limited English. I encouraged her as much as I could, her proud parents were nudging her to overcome her embarassment. It turned out she is an artist and after much cajoling she showed me her book, but not before she made a very fast line portrait of me, making me look really sweet. Her name is Dan

And it turned out that whom I though was her older brother, was unrelated to the family, another traveller, a stock brocker travelling from North China (a very long way away) to visit his family for the holidays. He stayed on after Dan and her family got off the train, we had a long conversation on topics of politics and economy, including my pet peeve of not being able to start my blog and how useless that is to mantaining power and how bad for public relations. He did not contradict me, neither did he forcefully endorse what I was saying, though he seemed to agree.