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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: 21884
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:
 great book but not the end all be all November 10, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a great source of information for the traveler. It's the best large scope book I've found for finding information on intracountry travel via bus, train, taxi, etc. It's also well written with a wry sense of humor. Some limitations, however, are timeliness, as businesses are constantly opening and closing in China, and I've already found a few places mentioned in the book that are no longer operating. Prices have also almost all gone up, despite the book coming out just a year ago. Gotta love inflation. The Rough Guide to China offers some better historical information and general overview of areas, but comes in short with getting around info. I like the Rough Guide better for planning and the Lonely Planet more to help while actually travelling.
 Tries to do too much... September 13, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
China is such a massive country with a rich culture that it is a formidable task to really explore it in one book, even if it is very thick! I used this during a 2 week trip to Eastern China and found that many of the sights that we really enjoyed and seemed to attract a fair amount of tourists were really shafted in this guide book. Maps of the subway system was useful to have, but the stations themselves are very well marked. Really didn't use this as much as I have used my LP books on trips in the past.
Hope it's good! August 7, 2006
1 out of 16 found this review helpful
Appears to be chuck full of info. However, won't know the accuracy until I use it next month.
 Best for the Backpacker July 19, 2006
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
Overall, "Lonely Planet" remains the best travel guide for the backpacker.
Excellent - if Outdated - Guide for the Middle Kingdom July 12, 2006
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
The Lonely Planet guidebook is a commonplace symbol on the long hard road through Asia. Everywhere you go on the tourist circuit (and sometimes off it) you will see tourists and backpackers totting well-thumbed and/or pristine copies of the blue book for immediate reference. While in some destinations, particularly South-East Asia, a well-delineated tourist circuit has already been established and a guidebook is not really needed, China is a different sort of challenge, and - barring proficiency in Mandarin - some sort of manual is essential in traveling from one place to the other and in exploring the myriad sightseeing destinations without the wallet-sting of the package tour.
I used this guide to visit the provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan and Guangxi and the municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in the spring and summer of 2005. Aside from offering fairly informative sections on China's history, health issues and basic language skills, this particular guidebook is necessary in that it contains the characters for all locations covered. Aside from Hong Kong, Shanghai and the tourist-Mecca of Guilin/Yangshuo, most Chinese natives do not speak nor recognize English, and having a concrete symbol to point at goes a long, long way in making this vast country assessable. Factor in lodging recommendations, reasonably competent maps, bus and train time-tables and the boxed articles about misc. culture, Lonely Planet: China contains all one would need for an adventurous trek through this ancient, swiftly-changing nation.
Change quickly outdates any guidebook, however. Published in January 2005, this particular edition should prove satisfactory for information in every regard *except* price. With a burgeoning Chinese upper middle class more than willing to spend extra lucre for their two-week vacations, the prices for tourist destinations have risen anywhere from 30 to 60 percent in the last year and a half. For example: Black Dragon Pool Park in Lijiang is listed as having an admission fee of 20 yuan; the reality is now 60 (USD $2.50 to $7.50). For Shaolin Si, entrance is 100 yuan instead of the listed 60. Transportation costs have risen only slightly - roughly 5 to 10 yuan - while hotels are always a nebulous rate, given the Chinese predilection towards bargaining... and, aside from government-listed tourist fees, one should always attempt to bargain; getting something half off the quoted price means you're paying a fair price.
This guidebook - which, in the core writing, hasn't changed in years - gives a great overall analysis for the 33 provinces / Special Economic Zones. But if one is planning their trip around certain specific locals - Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tibet - it would be better to pick up on of the individual guides covering those areas, as cramming information about all of China's environs in roughly 1000 pages does tend to short-change certain sections. Personally, I feel the guide works best for someone traveling through three or more provinces on their trip. Prior research is very important: China is enormous and there is a lot to see and do. In order to maximize one's potential, an itinerary is necessary and this guidebook goes a long way in terms of preliminary research.
Enjoy your trip!
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