Character guide

Kinko

major

Also known as Brave Kinko, friend Kinko, the fraudulent Kinko, machine poor Kinko

Kinko travels hidden aboard the Grand Transasiatic, enduring hunger and discomfort for the sake of Zinca Klork, the young Romanian woman waiting for him in Peking. When bandits threaten the train's imperial treasure, his courage saves the day — yet he is hauled before a Chinese magistrate and sentenced to prison for his irregular passage. His fate becomes the emotional test of the novel's middle stretch: whether a selfless act can outweigh a broken rule.

Faruskiar

major

Also known as this Faruskiar, This seigneur Faruskiar, Seigneur Faruskiar, the heroic Seigneur Faruskiar

Faruskiar mingles with the passengers as a cultured gentleman, sharing vivid anecdotes of Kachgaria's ferocious warlords and inviting Claudius Bombarnac to visit his yamen in Peking. His knowledge of the country is intimate — perhaps too intimate — and his presence on a train carrying a hidden imperial treasure keeps the correspondent's instincts prickling. He embodies the novel's central uncertainty: whether the most charming traveler is also the most dangerous.

Popof

major

Also known as Neither Popof

Popof oversees the passengers and the mysterious sealed van with professional discretion, answering Bombarnac's questions only as far as duty allows. He knows more than he says about the van's contents and the dangers along the Gobi line, yet his steady competence keeps the journey running even as rumors of bandits spread. He is the quiet hinge between the travelers' curiosity and the railway company's carefully kept secrets.

Major Noltitz

supporting

Major Noltitz has served in the region and speaks of the Chinese with the authority of firsthand experience, warning Bombarnac that the bandit Ki-Tsang is no mere paragraph-fodder. He balances the journalist's hunger for adventure with a soldier's caution, questioning Pan-Chao about the suspicious mortuary van before anyone else suspects its true cargo. His friendship gives the narrator a grounded counterweight to the journey's mounting uncertainties.

Madame Caterna

supporting

Also known as Caterna, Madame

Caroline Caterna and her husband have played every provincial stage from La Ferté-sous-Jouarre to Buenos Aires, and she matches his comic energy line for line. When Kinko's arrest leaves Zinca Klork distraught, it is Madame Caterna who offers maternal consolation, treating the young Romanian's sorrow as seriously as any role. Her generosity of spirit makes the travelers' compartment feel briefly like a green room — communal, noisy, and kind.

Pan-Chao

supporting

Also known as young Pan-Chao, The complaisant Pan-Chao

Pan-Chao answers Major Noltitz's questions about the dead mandarin and the sealed van with the courtesy of a well-bred traveler, though he knows nothing of the treasure hidden aboard. When Kinko faces a pitiless magistrate, Pan-Chao pleads his case with impassioned eloquence, arguing that the acrobat's courage saved the imperial gold. His loyalty to the group and his fluency in the Celestial Empire's ways make him the bridge between the foreign travelers and the country they are crossing.

Fulk Ephrinell

supporting

Also known as Ephrinell, Mr. Ephrinell, Fulk, Mr. Fulk Ephrinell

Ephrinell approaches Claudius Bombarnac on the gangway with the solemn air of a man closing a deal, only to ask him to witness his wedding to Miss Horatia Bluett. He is a Yankee who cannot wait: rather than marry in Peking, he intends to hold the ceremony aboard the moving train, and he methodically recruits witnesses among the passengers. His commercial impatience and cheerful disregard for convention make him one of the journey's most reliable sources of comic momentum.

Claudius Bombarnac

major

Also known as Monsieur Bombarnac, Monsieur Claudius Bombarnac, Monsieur Claudius, Claudius

Bombarnac arrives in Tiflis expecting a leisurely tour of the Georgian provinces, only to find orders sending him at once to Uzun Ada and the Grand Transasiatic. His notebook bulges with ethnographic detail, and his professional instinct is to interview the remarkable and report the trivial alike. Curious, tactful, and never above a little mischief, he becomes the reader's eyes aboard the train, befriending stowaways and brokering wedding witnesses with equal ease.

Zinca Klork

supporting

Also known as Mademoiselle Zinca Klork, Zinca, pretty Zinca Klork, the fair Zinca Klork, Mademoiselle Klork, Mademoiselle Zinca, Mademoiselle, The unhappy Zinca

Zinca Klork lives modestly on the first floor of a house off the Avenue Cha-Coua, plying the milliner's trade she learned in Paris. She and her Kinko are too poor to pay his fare, so she had him smuggled across Asia in a box, and she dreads every knock at her door as news of his discovery. When Bombarnac arrives with word of the stowaway, her fear and gratitude pour out at once, making her the emotional anchor of the journey's quietest intrigue.

Miss Horatia Bluett

supporting

Also known as Miss Bluett, Horatia Bluett, Horatia

Miss Bluett is the treasure Ephrinell boasts of: a woman thoroughly acquainted with business matters and holding a splendid commission, which in his eyes is the highest praise a fiancée can earn. Their match is a meeting of mercantile minds as much as hearts, and Ephrinell's insistence on marrying en route turns her into the quiet center of a rolling wedding. Her presence gives the passenger list its oddest and most entertaining romance.

Baron Weissschnitzerdörfer

minor

Also known as the Baron Weissschnitzerdörfer

A baron with a lengthy name, likely a comic or minor noble.

Ki-Tsang

minor

Also known as the renowned Ki-Tsang, Ki Tsang

A renowned figure, possibly a scholar or official.

Sir Francis Trevellyan

minor

Also known as Sir Francis Trevellyan of Trevellyan Hall, Sir Francis Trevellyan of Trevellyanshire

A baronet with a hall, appearing in the narrative.

Monsieur Caterna

minor

Also known as Caterna

Male counterpart to Madame Caterna, part of a couple.

Reverend Nathaniel Morse

minor

Also known as Nathaniel Morse, The Reverend Nathaniel Morse

A clergyman with a speaking role.

Ghangir

minor

A named individual, possibly a local or historical figure.

Caroline Caterna

minor

Also known as Caroline, Caterna

A female character, possibly related to the Caternas.

Tio-King

minor

Also known as Dr. Tio-King, Doctor Tio-King, Doctor Tio

A doctor with a notable name, likely a minor character.

General Annenkof

minor

Also known as Annenkof

A general mentioned in the narrative.

Monsieur Ephrinell

minor

Also known as Ephrinell

A separate Ephrinell character, possibly a relative or duplicate.

Mrs. Ephrinell

minor

Also known as Ephrinell, Mr. and Mrs. Ephrinell

Wife of an Ephrinell, part of a married couple.

Yen Lou

minor

Also known as the mandarin Yen Lou, mandarin Yen Lou, this Yen Lou, Yen-Lou

A mandarin with a brief appearance.

Tamerlane

minor

Also known as this Tamerlane

Historical figure referenced in the story.

Cornaro

minor

Also known as Louis Cornaro, the illustrious Cornaro

Historical figure mentioned as an allusion.

Generals Skobeleff

minor

Also known as Skobeleff

A general referenced in the narrative.

Hermann Zeitung

minor

Also known as Zeitung

A named individual, possibly a journalist.

Labiche

minor

A minor character with limited mentions.

Boulangier

minor

A minor character or name-drop.

Madame de Ujfalvy-Bourdon

minor

Also known as Madame De Ujfalvy-Bourdon

A named lady with a hyphenated surname.