Alongside the British railway lines in southern Africa, the Yunnan Railway in East Asia is one of the most ambitious and spectacular colonial railway projects of the last century. Over a total of 855 narrow-gauge kilometers, a train crosses no less than 173 bridges and passes through 158 tunnels. At least 12,000 of the 60,000 local workers and about 80 workers from European subcontractors died during the construction of the railway, many from malaria. The private letters and official reports of Otto Meister provide a captivating insight into the daily life of this massive undertaking in the gorges and swamps of southern China. The texts are richly illustrated with images from Otto Meister's photo album. A report from a ship journey in 1929 on the Yangtze amidst the turmoil of the civil war rounds off this account of experiences from pre-revolutionary China.