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| Lonely Planet China | 
 enlarge | Authors: Damian Harper, Andrew Burke, Julie Grundvig
Brand: Sheila Shine
Category: Book
List Price: $31.99
Buy New: $17.87
You Save: $14.12 (44%)
Buy New/Used from $17.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  (92 reviews)
Sales Rank: 24399
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 10th
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1028
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.7
MPN: 1
ISBN: 1740599152
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.1046
EAN: 9781740599153
ASIN: 1740599152
Publication Date: May 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Some decent information, but often outdated or inaccurate. October 2, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book contains some decent travel information, but the relevance and accuracy of that information varies wildly from section to section, as this book was actually written by several authors at different times in the past. Some sections are rather strong, others contain blatant typos in the Chinese and pinyin, inaccurate maps or bad directions, and pointers to restaurants and markets that have long since closed. I have owned a previous edition of this book, and interestingly enough, while the authors of each section have changed, the content has not been updated, keeping inaccurate and outdated information from older versions. The authors often weave their political opinions and biases into the book, which I feel distracts from its primary objective of providing objective travel information. It is somewhat ironic that this book points fingers at the Chinese for supposedly diluting the local culture of Xinjiang and Tibet, but at the same time provides information for busloads of foreign tourists to come to these regions. As another reviewer mentioned, the Lonely Planet effect is quite noticeable and previously untouched spots are now swarming with backpackers and tourists.
The book gives decent hotel recommendations, but they are often slanted to backpacker type "digs" where there will be plenty of other foreigners around. It could be the Lonely Planet effect again, but it seems the hotel recommendations are for hotels that are substantially more expensive than nearby choices of similar quality.
There were one too many times when a map led me in the wrong direction or the Chinese name for a place was so completely mangled that nobody was able to figure out what it meant. An example is the Altun mosque in Yarkand, Xinjiang - not only did they write it "Altyn" in the book, but they wrote the Chinese as "a-qin-dian" which sounds absolutely nothing like the proper Chinese transliteration, "a-le-tun." The directions were also useless, along the lines of "go right from the bus station and get on a bus, then ride it for some time until you reach the mosque." As the bus station had been moved to a completely different part of town, the directions were useless. Plenty of other examples abound - another big one that comes to mind is the guidebook's frequent claim that certain towns don't have any hotels where foreigners can stay. This might have been true years ago, but we never had any problem finding accommodation.
It's also ironic that this guidebook laments the status of the Uyghur language in Xinjiang, but does not provide any Uyghur travel phrases, as it does for Mandarin, Cantonese, and Tibetan; instead, they simply suggest you to buy their Central Asia phrasebook. When I was traveling in Xinjiang, I found that many Uyghurs have a hard time communicating in Chinese, and it was difficult to talk with them without knowing some Uyghur(which I learned from Chinese books).
To sum it up, there's some decent travel information to be had, but the accuracy and relevance varies a lot, and many sections are poorly written. The maps are often inaccurate, and there are recommendations for hotels and restaurants that have closed years ago. I would not recommend this book to someone who has never been to China before, or does not speak the language.
 Lonely Planet - CHINA August 25, 2007
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
Physical condition - Bent cover and first pages - ACCEPTABLE
Contents - We plan a trip to China in November 2007. This
Guide will be an invaluable resource - even though we will
be on a guided tour. We have guests that have lived years in
China and when they saw our copy of "Lonely Planet - CHINA",
they said that "It is absolutely THE BEST."
 too big too small August 11, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
the book is too big... China is a big country, there should be a separate book for each region covering it more in depth. Also due to this, the authors have selected a tiny font making it quite hard and unpleasant to read.
The book is also lacking useful hints which I find in the french equivalent "le guide du routard" for french speakers.
Not easy to read for foreigners July 13, 2007
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
Comprehensive edition actually, but not so easy to read for the foreigners.
As it is a guide I preffer more "easy english".
 so so July 13, 2007
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
For standard tourist attractions its a fine guide book BUT it is no insider guide ............ not even close.
And it is HEAVY!!!!! So think twice; or actually thrice as it is banned in China and if you come across police they might take it away from you!
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