Parts of China are some of the most remote, at least land farthest away from the sea. But with all of the transportation options now available, it doesn’t seem so far away as it once was. In a way, the distance has gotten smaller.

Even in the height of travel (Spring Festival, when almost everyone travels home, possibly one of the biggest migrations of people on the earth) it’s still possible. Well, you might end up standing for a whole day on a train, and if heavy snow comes and people are stuck well then it was really bad, but even with that it still all works pretty well.

I had to take nearly every form of transportation. Even if it meant drawing a picture of a bus and pointing to the words of the next town I wanted to get to.

Long Distance Bus.

On the train. Each compartment like this has six bed surfaces on each side but during the day or when not sleeping everyone sits at the lowest level.

Local bus in Changsha.

Taxi in Chenzhou.

Local bus in Chenzhou. Which gets pretty crowded.