Polly Evans’s itinerary for China was simple: travel by luxurious high-speed train and long-distance bus, glide along the Grand Canal and hike up scenic mountains. Instead, the linguistically impaired adventurer found herself on a primitive sleeper-minibus where sleep was out of the question; perched atop a tiny mule on a remote mountain pass; and attempting a dubious ferry ride down the Yangtze River. Polly was getting to know China in a way she’d never expected–and would never, ever forget.

From battling six-year-olds in kung-fu class to discovering Starbucks in Hangzhou, Polly relives her Asian adventure with humor, enthusiasm, frustration, and determination. Whether she’s viewing the embalmed cadaver of Chairman Mao or drinking yak-butter tea, this is Polly’s eye-opening account of a culture torn between stunning modern architecture and often bizarre ancient mysteries…and of her attempt to solve the ultimate gastronomic conundrum: how exactly does one eat a soft-fried egg with chopsticks

POLLY EVANS is very cowardly and not at all fond of danger. She does, however, have an unfortunate tendency to seek out discomfort and sometimes even downright pain. It was this ugly trait that led her five years ago to throw in her comfortable office job – complete with its twizzly chair and free use of the coffee machine – and to take off on a leg-battering bicycle tour of Spain.

The result of her endeavours was one very sore set of limbs and her first book, It's Not About the Tapas, which was short-listed for the WHSmith People’s Choice Travel Writing award. She indulged in further escapades the following year, this time swapping pedal-power for a motorbike to travel around New Zealand and to write her second book, Kiwis Might Fly. Polly's third book, Fried Eggs with Chopsticks, tells the story of her sometimes-desperate battle to tour China by public transport while On a Hoof and a Prayer sees her learning to ride horses in Argentina.

Polly's journalism has appeared in magazines and newspapers including the Sunday Times, the Times, the Independent on Sunday and the Guardian. In 2006, she won the Independent on Sunday / Bradt Travel Guides travel-writing competition for a piece she wrote about dog-sledding in Canada's Yukon Territory. Read all about it here. She was also the winner in 2005 of the British Guild of Travel Writers' Kenneth Westcott Jones Memorial Award for Best Transport Feature, for a piece she wrote about motorcyling in New Zealand; to read the article, click here. And in 2002 Polly won a Human Rights Press Award for a series of articles she wrote about racism in Hong Kong.

When she’s not on the road, Polly lives in London. She is currently working on her fifth book about dogsledding in Canada's Yukon territory.