what a nice surprise it was to read a review of your new book in The Economist the other day.

It was in July 2006 when you first published this article that we exchanged emails. Do you recall? At that time I was in the middle of an unusual driving project in China – Nokia engaged me drive a Caterham Super 7 21,000km through China, from the mouth of Yangtze in Shanghai to its source in the Tibetan plateau of Qinghai (where all you see is a Yak), from there to Lhasa, on to the source of the Yellow River (also in Qinghai), then along the Yellow River to its mouth in Shandong Province, finally back to Beijing. Nokia gave me one of their then-latest handsets and asked me to blog the entire journey. After the trip, the Caterham, which had collected on its body hundreds of signatures of people who helped me along the way, was auctioned off at a charity event hosted by Yao Ming. (If you can spare a minute, you might enjoy the videos and photos on http://www.ontheroadinchina.com/nokiadiscoverchina.)

Having driven in China over 150,000km over the past five years, I can attest to the changes that roads bring to the lives of people. Can’t wait wait to read your new book an compare notes…