Green dragon, sombre warrior : travels to China's extremes

The ancient Chinese divided the zodiac into four quadrants, each with its own ruler - the Green Dragon of the East, the Scarlet Phoenix of the South, the White Tiger of the West and the Sombre Warrior of the North.

They believed that these governed human affairs and that together they demonstrated a harmony in divergence.

Taking the same frame of reference, Liam d'Arcy Brown undertook a 10,000-mile journey across China.

He travelled from an isolated fishing community in the East China Sea and a 'steamy' tropical holiday resort on the tip of Hainan Island to a rebellious Muslim city on the Silk Road and a primitive riverside village in remote Manchuria.

In each, he discovered aspects of China that the wider world seldom glimpses.

Yet despite the astonishing contrasts of her physical and social geography, the variety of her peoples and the tangled web of her many histories and possible destinies, some constants remain.

Pork buns steaming in a bamboo basket, gold Chinese characters pasted to a doorway on a red paper diamond, empty crates of beer bottles, a battered thermos flask stencilled with the Double Happiness symbol - all these endure.But most fascinating of all were the many conversations Liam had with ordinary Chinese people of diverse cultures and races within a seemingly homogeneous People's Republic.