The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds: A Tale of Espionage, the Silk Road, and the Rise of Modern China

__Two epic journeys along the Silk Road, past and present, offer a riveting and cautionary tale about the breathtaking rise of China.__On July 6, 1906, Baron Gustaf Mannerheim boarded the midnight train from St. Petersburg, charged by Czar NicholasII to secretly collect intelligence on the Qing Dynasty's sweeping reforms that were radically transforming China. The last czarist agent in the so-called Great Game, Mannerheim, who would receive the name**__Horse that Leaps Through Clouds__**from the Chinese people he encountered,chronicled almost every facet of China's modernization, from education reform and foreign investment to Tibet's struggle for independence.On July 6, 2006, writer**Eric Enno Tamm**boards that same train, intent on following in Mannerheim's footsteps. Initially banned from China,**Tamm**devises a cover and retraces Mannerheim's route across the Silk Road, discovering both eerie similarities and seismic differences between the Middle Kingdoms of today and a century ago.Along the way,**Tamm**offers piercing insights into China's past that raise troubling questions about its future. Can the Communist Party truly open China to the outside world yet keep Western ideas such as democracy and freedom at bay, just as Qing officials mistakenly believed? What can reform during the late Qing Dynasty teach us about the spectacular transformation of China today? "Study the past if you would divine the future," wrote Confucius. Tamm's quest, told in**__The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds__**,turns out to be a cautionary tale. "On July 6, 1906, Baron Gustaf Mannerheim--who decades later became the President of Finland--boarded the midnight train from St. Petersburg, charged by Tsar Nicholas II to secretly collect intelligence on the Qing Dynasty's sweeping reforms that were radically transforming China. The last Tsarist agent in the so-called Great Game, Mannerheim chronicled almost every facet of China's modernization, from reform of education, foreign investment and industry to the military, Muslim borderlands and Tibet's struggle for independence. On July 6, 2006, writer Eric Enno Tamm boarded that same train, intent on following in Mannerheim's footsteps. Initially banned from China, Tamm devises a cover and retraces Mannerheim's route across the Silk Road, discovering both eerie similarities and seismic differences between the Middle Kingdoms of today and a century ago. Trekking overland 17,000 kilometres to Beijing, he runs a gauntlet of political and geographic extremes including some of the world's hottest deserts and cruellest dictatorships. Along the way, Tamm offers piercing insights into China's past that raise troubling questions about its future. Can the Communist Party truly open China to the outside world yet keep Western ideas such as democracy and freedom at bay, just as Qing officials mistakenly believed a century ago? What can reform during the late Qing Dynasty teach us about the spectacular transformation of China today? 'Study the past if you would divine the future, ' wrote Confucius. Tamm's epic quest turns out to be a cautionary tale."--Book's website Two epic journeys along the Silk Road, past and present, offer a riveting and cautionary tale about the breathtaking rise of China. On July 6, 1906, Baron Gustaf Mannerheim boarded the midnight train from St. Petersburg, charged by Czar NicholasII to secretly collect intelligence on the Qing Dynasty's sweeping reforms that were radically transforming China. The last czarist agent in the so-called Great Game, Mannerheim, who would receive the name Horse that Leaps Through Clouds from the Chinese people he encountered,chronicled almost every facet of China's modernization, from education reform and foreign investment to Tibet's struggle for independence. On July 6, 2006, writer Eric Enno Tamm boards that same train, intent on following in Mannerheim's footsteps. Initially banned from China, Tamm devises a cover and retraces Mannerheim's route across the Silk Road, discovering both eerie similarities and seismic differences between the Middle Kingdoms of today and a century ago. Along the way, Tamm offers piercing insights into China's past that raise troubling questions about its future. Can the Communist Party truly open China to the outside world yet keep Western ideas such as democracy and freedom at bay, just as Qing officials mistakenly believed? What can reform during the late Qing Dynasty teach us about the spectacular transformation of China today? "Study the past if you would divine the future," wrote Confucius. Tamm's quest, told in The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds ,turns out to be a cautionary tale. For a wealth of information on the book, the author and the research that went into this book, visit www.horsethatleaps.com. Two epic journeys along the Silk Road, past and present, offer a riveting and cautionary tale about the breathtaking rise of China. On July 6, 1906, Baron Gustaf Mannerheim boarded the midnight train from St. Petersburg, charged by Czar Nicholas ii to secretly collect intelligence on the Qing Dynasty's sweeping reforms that were radically transforming China. The last czarist agent in the so-called Great Game, Mannerheim chronicled almost every facet of China's modernization, from education reform and foreign investment to Tibet's struggle for independence. On July 6, 2006, writer Eric Enno Tamm boards that same train, intent on following in Mannerheim's footsteps. Initially banned from China, Tamm devises a cover and retraces Mannerheim's route across the Silk Road, discovering both eerie similarities and seismic differences between the Middle Kingdoms of today and a century ago. Along the way, Tamm offers piercing insights into China's past that raise troubling questions about its future. Can the Communist Party truly open China to the outside world yet keep Western ideas such as democracy and freedom at bay, just as Qing officials mistakenly believed? What can reform during the late Qing Dynasty teach us about the spectacular transformation of China today? “Study the past if you would divine the future," wrote Confucius. Tamm's quest turns out to be a cautionary tale. Eurasia St. Petersburg: The Secret Agent Azerbaijan: The Nobels' Prize Turkmenistan: Fear and Loathing Uzbekistan: The Great Game Redux Kyrgyzstan: Travels on the Synthetic Road Western China Kashgar: Mission Impossible To Khotan: Oases and To dunhuang: Treasure Hunt Hexi Corridor: Barbarians Inside the Gate Lanzhou: The Chinese Renaissance Labrang: Stoned Northern China Xi'an: Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics Henan: The Harmonious Countryside Taiyuan: Opium of the People Wutai Shan: The Wanderer Inner Mongolia: The Soot Road Beijing: Reawakening Epilogue: To the Finland Station.