Product Description

Nobody knows China like Lonely Planet. Whether you want to sip cocktails in Shanghai, trek Tibet's holy Mt Kailash or contemplate history at Xu'an's Army of Terracotta Warriors, our 11th edition will guide you through the best of this jaw-dropping destination - and reveal more of it than any other guide.

In This Guide:

All-new color chapters feature treks, iconic sights and culinary delights
Comprehensive activities coverage, including new cycling trips and unforgettable river tours
Expert trustworthy knowledge from resident and specialist authors

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16307 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1032 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781741048667
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Lonely Planet's 2005 guide is excellent for its historical overview, the nitty-gritty of getting around...and its quirky cultural insights." -- Post-Standard, November 27, 2005

"Start with Lonely Planet's...China guide." -- London Free Press, December 10, 2005

From the Publisher
Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travellers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travellers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
* When we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travellers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travellers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
China is not so much a travel destination as a mind-boggling phenomenon. It's home to on of the world's longest continuous civilizations, with an impressive heritage of art, architecture, language and cuisine. It's a country of great contrasts: picturesque rural landscapes and congested cityscapes; and natural beauty that ranges from the untamed to the idyllic - from the windswept plains of the Gobi Desert and the notorious northern face of Mt Everest to Yangshuo's gorgeous karst scenery.

China is huge and wild enough to satisfy your explorer instinct, but criss-crossed with an extensive transportation network so you won't be left high and dry.

Whatever China does to you - entertains, stimulates, appeals or bemuses - you will come away with priceless memories of a country in the throes of reinventing itself. The last decades of the 20th century saw China open up to an eager world that was gazing through the portcullis, visa application in hand.

These past years have been a ceaseless drama of energetic development, economic contortions, an invasion of Western culture and the resurgence of mass inequality. China has never been so transformed, except perhaps when the Mongols passed through with their own blueprints for change.

A light-headedness lingers from the rejection of the austerities and craziness of the Mao era and the effects of that new opiate, carefully named 'socialism with Chinese characteristics'. The currents of change run deep. See for yourself while sipping cappuccinos from Starbucks in Beijing or perusing the latest fashions in Shanghai.

An increasingly confident China knows the importance of engagement with the world. A gold rush of rewards in 2001 has yielded a feel-good factor: China joined the World Trade Organization, Beijin will stage the 2008 Olympics and the national football (soccer) team made it to the World Cup for the first time ever.

Domestic tourism is in a state of supernova, showering sights around the land with much-needed investment, and less-needed noise pollution and litter. Sadly, some destinations have been disfigured as the tourist industry swamps them with garish sideshows and commerce, and some previously idyllic locations have perhaps irreversibly lost their magic. Massive investment has brought transport quality a long way over the last 10 years, and routes have become steadily speedier and more comfortable.

The coercive nature of the Chinese State remains, however - placing serious limits on freedoms. China has chosen to embrace modernity without allowing political evolution; dissent is brutally expunged, debate stifled and information carefully controlled. This may not be of great interest to short-term travelers, but will explain why the BBC Web site is blocked (both in English and Chinese), why foreign newspapers are occasionally trimmed of opinion and why there are no demonstrations or political debates on TV.

Also be aware that travel in China can present difficulties, with language the single most difficult barrier. This guidebook has undertaken to facilitate the ease with which you master some basic Chinese by providing tonal marks to aid pronunciation. Chinese script is also provided, where it can come in handy (on maps, to show to taxi drivers, for example). Familiarizing yourself with the Chinese words for hotel, restaurant, park, temple, station and so on will make getting around a little easier and, hopefully, will lead to greater interaction with Chinese people.

China is a great rollercoaster ride for anyone with a little time and an instinct for travel. So take a deep breath, plunge in and have a great trip!

Customer Reviews

Good for package tourists; not for exploration
They say that everything you hear about China is true somewhere. Everything you read in LP China may also be true somewhere but unfortunately not always where you are. Originally published in August 2002 this book is well past its prime. It is still superior to the Rough Guide but could use a serious update. Speaking of which the overleaf promises guidebook upgrades on the Internet but they discontinued this in favour of user discussion.

Pricing - the cost of tea in China, you say? Like most things in China, prices are in constant flux and I question the value of including them. They are more misleading than helpful. Tourist attractions will generally be higher than what the book says but other prices will be close.

Locations - I live in the city of Wuhan and in the last two year it has undergone tremendous changes. There is simply no way for a printed book to keep up with them. For example, in the last six months the bus routes in WuChang have changed four times.

If you are going to travel around China be flexible! Expect that nothing in the guidebook will be where you expected. Expect to bargain for everything, hotel prices included. Remember that any guide book is only a starting place. As I have travelled around southern China I have used this book as a starting point and then asked the locals what they would do. Most have never been to the "tourist sites" but can show you a great street restaurant just around the corner.

This book is great for those thinking of going to China but who will never make the trip, or for those who are going on a package trip to fourteen cities in eight days. For those who want to explore China on their own I would advise caution.

Needs massive overhaul - 3 1/2 stars
Just got back from China and used the latest edition as guide. That's all it is... a guide. Tries to be your "insider" pal but fails on several fronts. China's too darn big and changing too fast for any publisher to dare think a single "China" volume is sufficient. I mean, would you trust a single "USA" guidebook? Of course not, even if it's as thick as a phone book (and this ungainly little brick is just that).

Many wonderful sights/attractions/wonders are not even mentioned... Did editor decide to excise them, or do researchers look only so far?? I, for one, would have liked to see more attractions mentioned. But if the LP people are going to keep up the chatty little comments with every such entry (a Lonely Planet hallmark), they will have to break up "China" into many volumes. For example, book does not even show on Wuhan map the fascinating, large Taoist temple there... cutting the chit-chat about Mao's Villa there (worth visiting but the text on it is useless) could have made room. But if they want to keep the cute comments (surfing buddhas on a temple wall in Kunming, overrated herbalist in Lijiang, Europe in miniature in Chengdu), they are going to have to break the book up into at least three volumes.

Restaurant reviews could be chopped in half, that's for sure. They are boring, outdated, sometimes wholly erroneous. Phone numbers have always been a joke in LP editions for any country I have used ...I own some seventeen LP's... but these numbers were wholly useless to me on my recent trip.

As other reviewers note, it is necessary to concede that China is always changing, and with growing speed. Perhaps LP just can't send their researchers out fast enough. But there are enough expats living in Chinese cities to be tapped for updates. Incidentally, expats are a great resource for any traveller... already Shanghai and Beijing have weekly "what's on" style tabloids in English that are very helpful to the visitor. Anyway, on the expat account alone, generally clever LP editors really have little excuse for not having a finger on China's latest and greatest.

What's good about Lonely Planet China?? Liberal use of Chinese characters and Pinyin romanization, for one thing. Made it super easy to communicate with taxi drivers. The Orientation section for each city is excellent... three paragraphs to prepare you for the layout and characteristics of the city. History section is good, too. I truly love the off-the-beaten path viewpoint that makes Lonely Planet so much fun... so I hope future editions retain this, while getting on the ball with useful / necessary details.

Using this book, traveller / reader will get a generally good trip, but will be led astray / waste time more than once by old info (where to catch bus to Buddha, where to find Muslim food, etc), and from incomplete phone numbers.

Necessary but unsatisfactory
The lonely planet China guides, for the two years that I taught in China, were indispensable for its general information about places that do not disappear overnight, e.g., train stations, large hotels and hostels. It is relatively useful in physically orienting yourself with cities and the larger tourist destinations. If you want a more informative guide on the history of places that you visit, I would suggest the Rough Guide. General information on what to expect when traveling in china is also useful however some of this is outdated as well.

Outside of this, the Lonely Planet essentially provides you with a tour of China without being on a tour. Everyone and their Grandmother that has a backpack will have this book. Do not expect to find little known attractions with this book, as when a site shows up here, it immediately becomes an overnight success. This is particularly true of all of the restaurant listings and entertainment venues as many of them actually vie to be mentioned in this book. I have also seen many a decent restaurant ruined by callous and hastey remarks.

I have good reason to believe that the Lonely Planet does not verify all that they publish from one edition to the next. While I lived in Chengdu, a new edition came out and listed several restaurants and bars that had been closed for over a year and a half- more than ample time for the Lonely Planet to verify their existence.

With all of this said, no other guidebook remotely comes close to matching the utility of the Lonely Planet. Its an essential point of departure, that I would recommend augmenting with other resources, to discovering your own adventures in China.