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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: 18292
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:
 Am I missing something? July 8, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Having just returned from a trip in China with the Lonely Planet book as my only guide, I am a bit mystified by the generally negative reviews and complaints about minor points. Is this book perfect? Of course not. Any attempt to fit all of a country (especially one as large as China) into one book will inevitably fall short. Yet, LP packs more info into 1000 pages than most other tour books combined. Another complaint is that it is not necessarily up-to-date. Of course it isn't. Anything put in print about a country changing as fast as China is out of date the moment it hits the bookstands. It should be a given that an attraction with an entrance fee of Y50 today will likely be Y100 tomorrow. Ask yourself though: does it really matter? Are you really going to skip the Forbidden City because the entrance fee is Y20 higher than published? No, of course not.
The LP has much to recommend it. Here are the highlights:
-excellent maps with accurate scale and bilingual markers
-good breadth without sacrificing too much depth
-great for people who want to leave the tour groups and package tours behind (it's much cheaper to go solo!)
-a good selection of restaurants and hotels in different price ranges
-good descriptions of main attractions and how to get to them
-a pretty good language section with some of the survival words and phrases you will need
Above all, I can give this tour book no greater compliment than the following sentiment: if you are traveling to China and bring only one book, THIS IS THE ONE. Do not be put off by the negative reviews that harp on minor and often irrelevant points. My advice is the same for anyone who travels to China or any other country: do your homework before going. The internet is a great start, as are books that might give a better overview of issues such as language, culture, politics, and other fields that can only receive cursory treatment in a travel book already bursting at the seams of its 1000 pages. But, the point is that when you're on the ground in China, this is the book that you want as your traveling companion. That's why it gets 5 stars in my book!
 Led us to all the tourist traps in Western China! Beware! July 5, 2006
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Having traveled to Tanzania, Ecuador, and through Europe and Canada on useful, reliable LP guidebooks, I was highly disappointed with LP China. During my trip, I spent time in Beijing and the Yunnan Province. The book was fine for Beijing and all its tourist sites, but don't assume that this book will lead you to any "undiscovered" gems in the great west. Instead we found ourselves in tourist trap after tourist trap (e.g., Dali, Lijiang) based on the cities LP China decided to highlight. We finally ended up finding a Chinese native guide who led us off the beaten track at which point the journey became interesting! But in the meantime, we wasted several days in pursuit of the charming, cultural, ethic towns and villages that the guide promised, each time our hopes destroyed by modern hotels and shopping centers aimed towards Chinese toursists (Lijiang is a great example of this). I don't mind if the book covers these tourist destinations, but PLEASE warn those of us who want to visit unspoiled places that we are walking into a tourist nightmare! This book does no such thing. I would not trust the descriptions if you want to have a unique and special adventure in China. It seems as though in the hurry to get out a new version to take advantage of increasing overseas tourist interest in China, they rushed a book out barely updating it from the previous version. Shame on you LP. I will think twice before buying your books again as my default travel guides.
Researched in a rush--too many errors and omissions July 2, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've been using this edition for four months now on a bicycle ride across China, and have been disappointed with the quality of information in it. The authors seem to have rushed through the country too quickly. There are just too many mistakes--details mixed up, important places missed, and poor descriptions. For some attractions, I wondered if the authors got past the ticket booth!
Also the information is much older thant the 2005 copyright suggests. I hardly ever find the accommodations and restaurant sections useful. Prices are usually way off the mark.
It's not just this edition. I experienced similar problems with the 2005 Lonely Planet editions of Laos and Vietnam. Note to Lonely Planet: We need better quality books! Also, we need the Upgrades section restored to the Lonely Planet website.
A good guidebook is essential for travel in China because there are no tourist offices here. I suggest looking at books from other publishers first.
 Great for "tourists" - and could include more warnings! June 27, 2006
2 out of 14 found this review helpful
I write from the perspective of someone in China who wants to explore the Chinese language itself - undoubtedly a large cross-section of travellers to China share this because they disproportionately have fallen in the deep end of language study prior to departure (especially if it's at tertiary level).
So, you want to get down & dirty in mainland China - not in the sense of visiting "Gay & Lesbian Venues" (p297), but are looking to buy a good Chinese text? Or want a good overview of the various dialects of China? You'd need to look further than this book. Mind you, the best texts for learning Chinese are, in my experience, most often written or cowritten by Westerners. This could be a natural outcome of a Westerner experiencing the frustrations of learning Chinese as an adult, as distinct from a child - something most Chinese people have never done. For further comments on some of these texts, see my other reviews, as well as the Routledge Chinese series of grammars.
A comment on page 329 on the languages of Fujian province: "Locals speak variations of the Min dialect, which includes Taiwanese". I don't know whether this is an entirely accurate description. "Taiwanese" isn't spoken on the mainland as such. Taiwan is simply not *on* the mainland. It would be better to say that the Min dialect (or language), often known as Hoklo or Hokkien, is spoken in both Fujian province and Taiwan.
Despite my admittedly idiosyncratic and skewed comments, I think this is a great book to have with you in China. Especially if you are planning on travelling around.
The approach to the politics of Tibet and Taiwan are refreshing (especially for someone who's been in China a little while). Just be careful you don't take this book as a "show & tell" item to an English class like some friends of ours did - only to be questioned about the absence of Taiwan on some of the maps (or different colouring thereof)!
Now. To the warnings. This is getting away from the things I have said about the language and so forth above. I have been staying in China for a number of months now, with wife and son. Our son is mixed race - half white half asian.
The Chinese love babies, almost cultishly so, possibly as a result of the one child policy. So naturally when they see a child that is - to them - unusual, they can't resist but take a look.
But nobody (including Lonely Planet) ever warned us that from the moment we leave our apartment there would be people pointing at our child, trying to touch him, speaking about him within our full earshot. Hardly anyone ever speaks to me or about me without referring to the child. We approach a service counter and struggle to get the staff's attention away from the baby's (who is sitting very quietly in his pram). At some of the larger supermarkets there are many female staff simply standing around with nothing to do. When they see our child they collect each other so that they can all stare at us together and so their friends don't miss out.
You may insist that I'm being petty and I should just rejoice that the Chinese love children so. Go ahead, bring your 1.5 year old child to Wuhan, China and go on a shopping trip and see for yourself. You will be thoroughly exhausted. You will not walk 50 metres without a point, stare or comment. But usually (especially when you go to a place for the first time) EVERYONE will be staring at you. They will come out of the shop to stare.
Nobody ever warned me as an individual (babies aside) how many Chinese people would ride past on their bicycles or yell from within their group "hello!" and say to each other laowai (old foreigner) or waiguoren (foreigner). To yell "hello!" as they go past is particularly a welcome to China.
I know it's expecting a lot but If they really wanted to welcome me to China they'd get off their bikes, begin by speaking Chinese (it is after all, the national language) but be accomodating if I can't speak it, speak in a quiet voice so that the masses can't listen in, and ask whether there's anything they can assist with. If they can't do that, they simply shouldn't bother. They are treating westerners like museum exhibits.
Consider how this behaviour would be frowned upon in the west.
GREAT BOOK TO PLANNING YOUR TRIP June 22, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I bougth this book following the advice of a friend.
He travelled to China few years ago, he doesn't speak chinese and he survived almost five months visiting almost all China and Tibet, with just this book and a lonely planet phrase book.
With this book he got greats and cheap hotels in the biggest cities of China.-
I've been reading this book to prepare my trip to China next January, and this book is an excelent guide.
You can find detailed information about optimal routes, hotels, attractions, how you get there, how can you save money, what you must go in each city (and includes almost every little town in China), where can you find information in english or other languages,where is nice to walk, and a lot more.
Has something extremely useful, every place has the name in English and Chinese (Pinyin and symbols). Another friend who visited China told me that the most important thing in you want to use a taxi in China.
There are 2 points that could be improved. First: A lot of information, but just a few pictures. Second: Is heavy, not too much, but heavy enough to hated it after a few days in your backpack in China. Another friend leaved it China after a few days.
Well, i will improve this review after use this book in China.
Sorry about my english skills , i just speak spanish and a little bit of chinese.
From the South of the world
Carolina
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