"It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?" (page 55)
-- Bram Stoker, in Dracula
“Perhaps it’s the horseshoe theory of trains, as you reach Cathay, Goryeo, Yapon, they get very on time again,” thought Du Fu, as he hiked along the Rynnestig, that border mountain path between Thuringia and Franconia. He was observing Magna Germania, this being his first trip there.
He had felt the call from Li Bai, and answering it without reservation, despite his children and wife’s worry, he had stepped into the forests of Qin Ling, that precious reserve where the talking animals still could be found, and as all paths lead eventually to one another, the jin si hou monkey dotted landscape, with its delicious mi hou tao fruited trees changed to the low, clear mountainscape of the Thuringian and Franconian forests. He was not in Chang’an anymore, but what is friendship among men if you do not 為朋友兩肋插刀,為女朋友插朋友兩刀 (for a friend you would receive two knife stabs in the ribs, for a girlfriend you would stab a friend twice in the ribs)?
At one of the little villages he had stopped for a schankbeer and walking clothes. He packed his Han robes into a smart brown knapsack, with a blanket tightly rolled and secured on top. He had acquired a fine walking stick of alder wood, and solid brown shoes with high ribbed socks that tied just below the knee in the back. Now he had on a local green jacket and fancied himself fitting in among the long-distance walkers.
Walking from one end of Germania to another, whether up and down or side to side, seemed a popular activity. He had already passed Caspar David Friedrich, who was walking yet again from Saxony to Pomerania. Caspar David Friedrich had recently painted the monastery at Oybin, and wanted to once again see and attempt to set down onto canvas the monasteries of his heimat north.
There have not been so many Cathayans in Germania. But there had been a few. Likewise, while there had not been that many Germans in Cathay, there had been some.
Just beyond the path’s bend, away shining so happily in the sunlight, was Pheasant Mansion, where Miss Amelia Havisham was waiting for Du Fu with matcha tea, prepared just the way he likes it. Li Bai and Cinderella were almost there themselves, entering the rhododendron garden and smelling the 杜鵑 buds in bloom. And there was a surprise guest, a Mrs. Frau Holle, air pirate captain.