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Lonely Planet China(Paperback) (Paperback)
by Damian Harper, Steve Fallon, Katja Gaskell , Julie Grundvig , Carolyn Heller
| Category:
Travel, China |
| Market price: ¥ 218.00
MSL price:
¥ 198.00
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Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Welcome to China: vast, ambitious, proud, and transforming like never before. |
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Author: Damian Harper, Steve Fallon, Katja Gaskell , Julie Grundvig , Carolyn Heller
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
Pub. in: May, 2005
ISBN: 1740596870
Pages: 980
Measurements: 7.8 x 4.9 x 1.6 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00914
Other information: 9th edition(out of print)
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- MSL Picks -
From Antarctica to Zimbabwe, if you're going there, chances are Lonely Planet has been there first. With a pithy and matter-of-fact writing style, these guides are guaranteed to calm the nerves of first-time world travelers, while still listing off-the-beaten-path finds sure to thrill even the most jaded globetrotters. Lonely Planet has been perfecting its guidebooks for nearly 30 years and as a result, has the experience and know-how similar to an older sibling's "been there" advice. The original backpacker's bible, the LP series has recently widened its reach. While still giving insights for the low-budget traveler, the books now list a wide range of accommodations and itineraries for those with less time than money.
Just as the authors describe China as "massive and endlessly fascinating," so is the material they have collected in this guide-an important travelers' opus. The 200-plus maps feature keys in English and Chinese script and there are essential details on transport options, a 12-page Chinese arts section, and a useful feature on the Chinese language.
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
Target readers:
General public
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Welcome to China: vast, ambitious, proud, and transforming like never before. Speed down alleyways on your Beijing bicycle, slurp steaming noodles in the shadow of a Shanghai skyscraper and wake up spellbound to the deserts capes of Xinjiang. Whether you seek the Terracotta Warriors of ancient Xi'an or a few moments with the pandas of Chengdu, this bestselling guidebook will take you through the heart of China.
- BE INSPIRED by the wonders of the Middle Kingdom - the best coverage available, from the Great Wall to the high passes of Tibet
- TALK THE TALK and find what you want with handy Chinese script throughout
- UNWIND your qi in the most chic hostels, guest-houses and hotels
- CONNECT with the real China - scintillating History and Culture chapters
- FIND IT YOURSELF - 230 easy-to-use maps
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Bobak Haeri (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
I've been using Lonely Planet guides for all of my travels in the past decade (and not finding LP, I go with Moon Guides). Luckily, the new edition of the LP China guide came out a month before my visit to the Middle Kingdom. I planned my itinerary inside China based off of recommendations in the book: Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Suzhou and Guilin --using the book as a reference everywhere. Here are my impressions after the trip, starting with the positive:
- The book is overall a good value for helping find which sites are worth visiting on a tight schedule. I found all of its site descriptions to be spot on and was not disappointed by any of the places I visited based on suggestions from the guidebook.
- As usual, the LP maps are tremendously useful when navigating major cities and towns.
- the advice on scams was tremendously useful in China, where being a foreigner makes you an instant target for unwanted attention. If anything, they should expand this section.
However, there were a number of minor quibbles that kept this book from being as useful as other LP guides (like Japan or Canada) which I will go over below:
- As noted by other reviewers, the prices on admissions are already out-of-date. The book was published in June '05 and my trip was in August '05, yet very few prices corresponded to those in the guide. All prices were higher.
- Often the hotel reviews were far too generous. After staying at many "mid-range" and "High-end" hotels recommended by the guide, my travel companion and I laughed at the wondrous descriptions given in the LP guide for most of them.
- Some of the slang used in the guide is unfamiliar to US readers. Granted, this point is a very minor quibble, but it's annoying when you're trying to get a feel for a place from the book and you can't understand what it's trying to say.
- Since many, many people go to China to shop, and nearly all stores involve serious haggling, I was disappointed that the book did not have a good section on how to approach shopping in China. For this I had to go to various forums on the web, but there's really no reason to not include the universal rules in such a general guidebook.
- Finally, I was a little surprised that this LP guide seemed a little toned down in its editorial criticism of the enormous inequalities and visible authoritarian elements within China. This is not to say I was expecting a political statement, but a charming aspect of many LP guides are their willingness to point out blatant or just-below-the-surface problems in the countries and cultures it covers. In many cases the China guide did point issues, particularly with minorities, but often it gave the Chinese gov't a pass in areas where even a fairly oblivious tourist like myself couldn't help but notice. With that said, I have a suspicion that this may have been a judicious choice by the editors, since bringing in books that are too critical to the Chinese Government is forbidden (as clearly stated on the customs forms visitors must sign when they enter the country).
Overall I found this book to be useful. I did side-by-side comparisons with a Frommer and Nat'l Geographic China guide before I purchased it and I felt that the LP guide was willing to make more editorial opinion judgments on what was really worth making time for.
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Ian Vance (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
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. |
Charles E. Stevens (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
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.
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! |
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