China (Country Guide) (Paperback)

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 –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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

11th Revised edition edition China Country Guide

Invisible China: A Journey Through Ethnic Borderlands (Hardcover)by Colin Legerton (Author), Jacob Rawson (Author)

From Publishers Weekly
This odyssey—spanning 14,000 miles in four months—details China’s rich diversity in a narrative jeweled with dazzling descriptions but lacking analysis. Legerton and Rawson, graduate students in the region’s language and history, meander along the Silk Road, reporting on various hidden minorities and gaining extraordinary access to people’s lives and homes. However, they take much of what they are told at face value and provide only superficial analysis of their ambitious undertaking. This is unfortunate because their sources and observations speak directly to the intersection of politics and culture that came to the fore in the days before Beijing hosted the Olympic Games. It is only in the afterword that they make explicit the link between China’s official party line on minorities and what they witnessed. Nor do they attempt to explain what forces maintained China’s cohesion over the turbulent past half-century. Despite these structural weaknesses, this is a spectacular achievement reminiscent of early 20th-century anthropological monographs by Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, with much to charm readers in search of a travelogue on China’s remote border and interior regions. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Students of Chinese and other Asian languages, Legerton and Rawson took their linguistic skills to the geographic periphery of China in 2006 and again in 2007. They sought members of the country’s non-Han minorities to learn about their lives, paying attention to their attitudes toward the majority Han. Upon arrival in some obscure town or village, they asked for a good place to eat, a query that yielded productive encounters with people and their cuisine as well as with local sites significant to them. As they narrate this method of introducing themselves, Legerton and Rawson interject explanations of policies, historical and current, of the central government toward ethnic minorities, such as religious persecution during the Cultural Revolution. They heard complaints about the Han, but making a livelihood was the predominant concern they discovered among Koreans, Mongolians, Uyghers, and several other of China’s 50-plus officially categorized ethnicities. Seemingly unfazed by rough accommodations and unusual foods, Legerton and Rawson eschew flourishes and hew to description in imparting their experiences for travel readers intrigued by China’s remote regions. –Gilbert Taylor

Customer Reviews

Invisible China should be on your summer reading list!, May 13, 2009

I expected invisible China to be a fairly dry, intellectual review of Chinese minorities. I couldn’t have been farther from the truth. The book has travel-log appeal, dry wit, and an understated nature that is delightful to read and surprises you with the amount of history and background you learn. The authors do not intrude with their experiences as much as they allow you to feel as though you have had chance encounters with individuals who have interesting stories to share.

I sincerely hope these two authors continue to explore and write about the country and people they meet.

An Exciting Adventure, May 11, 2009

I can only dream of being this adventurous. This is a fantastic travelogue taking readers into isolated regions of China that the rest of us can only fantasize about visiting. And it is quite an eye-opener as well. The book provides a report on Chinese government policy toward its minority citizens, and it isn’t always pretty. In fact, it rarely is. This is a must-read.

Frank, Informative, and Personal, May 11, 2009

Invisible China challenges some of the fundamental assumptions that Westerners maintain about China and the people in it. Myths like: “All Chinese use chopsticks,” “All Chinese have dark hair,” and “All Chinese speak Chinese,” are shown to be false.

This is 225 pages of bald reporting. The authors, to their credit, insert very few of their own opinions, opting instead to broadcast dozens of local voices that very, very few English speakers would otherwise hear, from sites that Western tourists will never visit. What looks like a backwater village on the map more often than not turns out to be a swirling vortex of cultures, battered on all sides by conflicting cultural and ethnic influences.

Contradictions are aired shamelessly, proving the old maxim that China is impossible to summarize. This China, anyway, the China in Invisible China, is one that most of us didn’t know existed.

Invisible China: A Journey Through Ethnic Borderlands (Hardcover)by Colin Legerton (Author), Jacob Rawson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

In going beyond the monumental yet familiar heritage of Delhi, thisresource brings alive the contemporary life of India’s capital and best-known city. Its vivid palette of brilliant images captures the throbbing pulse of today’s Delhi, and this same fresh, exciting spirit is reflected in the crisp essays by some of India’s best-known writers as they celebrate what makes Delhi a multicultural society. This attractive coffee-table book also manages to capture the tranquility of Delhi’s ageless spirit, presenting an exciting mix of moods and attitudes and celebrating a city destined to become a world leader.

About the Author

Malvika Singh is the publisher of the monthly journal Seminar and a columnist for numerous daily newspapers and magazines. She initiated and edited the India magazine, the first of its genre in India, that explored the many facets of this land, her people and cultures. Uday Sahay is one of the foremost communication analysts in India, currently heads the Directorate of Information & Publicity of Delhi Government, andcontributes to the leading national daily newspapers with regular columns, poetry, short stories, and oil paints.

Order Delhi: India in One City: Malvika Singh form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

At the age of thirty, Kaoru Nonomura left his family, his girlfriend, and his job as a designer to undertake a year of ascetic training at Eiheiji, one of the most rigorous Zen training temples in Japan. This book is Nonomura’s account of his experiences. He skillfully describes every aspect of training, including how to meditate, how to eat, how to wash, and even how to use the toilet, in a way that is easy to understand even for readers with no knowledge of Zen Buddhism. This first-person account also describes Nonomura’s struggles in the face of beatings, hunger, exhaustion, fear, and loneliness, the comfort he draws from his friendships with the other trainees, and his quiet determination to give his life spiritual meaning.
After writing Eat Sleep Sit, Kaoru Nonomura returned to his normal life as a designer, but his book has maintained its popularity in Japan, selling more than 100,000 copies since its first printing in 1996. Beautifully written, and a fascinating insight into a lifestyle of hardships that few people could endure, this is a book that will appeal to all those with an interest in Zen Buddhism and to anyone with an interest in the quest for spiritual growth.

About the Author

Born in 1959, Nonomura traveled widely in China and Tibet as a young man. He worked as a designer before his year at Eiheiji. After his year there, he returned to his design job, and it was on the daily crowded train commute to work that he began to scribble his recollections of his Eiheiji experience, and these scribblings eventually became Eat Sleep Sit, the author’s only book.

Order Eat Sleep Sit: My Year at Japan’s Most Rigorous Zen Temple: Kaoru Nonomura, Juliet Winters Carpenter form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

India Condensed is a book for anyone who needs a quick introduction to India. History, philosophy, religion, language, literature, arts and culture are all discussed in this lively and accessible text. More than a dry recitation of dates, names and events, the topics covered range from stories and legends to current facts and observations. Thousands of years of history, culture and civilization are distilled into one handy book for easy reference.

About the Author
Anjana Motihar Chandra is a freelance journalist with extensive experience in writing and editing, having worked in news agencies as well as newspapers, magazines, public relations and publishing during her long career. She received her Master of Mass Communication from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and is currently teaching academic writing and communication to undergraduate students there. Anjana is widely travelled and has lived in such diverse regions as North America, Africa and the Middle East. She has been living in Singapore with her husband and two children for the past six years.

Order India Condensed: 5,000 Years of History & Culture: Anjana Motihar Chandra form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

My Friend the Fanatic is a portrait of the world’s most populous Muslim country, Indonesia, and the fourth most populous nation in the World. A nation once synonymous with tolerance that now finds itself in the midst of a profound shift toward radical Islam. The portrait is painted through the travels of a pair of unlikely protagonists. Sadanand Dhume, the author, is a foreign correspondent—a Princeton-educated Indian atheist with a fondness for literary fiction and an interest in economic development. His companion, Herry Nurdi, is a young Islamist who hero worships Osama bin Laden. Their travels span mosques and discotheques, prison cells and dormitories, sacred volcanoes and temple ruins.

About the Author
Sadanand Dhume, a graduate of Princeton University, is a fellow at the prestigious Asia Center in Washington, D.C.—working on Transnational Islam—and a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. He lives in Washington D.C.

Order My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist: Sadanand Dhume form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Review
“A thoughtful intelligent and beautifully written work. Once started, I guarantee you will not be able to put it down. It clips along, propelling the reader through laughter and grief into the unimaginable and through disturbing and unfamiliar places. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.” —Don Cormack, author, Killing Fields, Living Fields

“The book gave me an insight into, and passionate interest in, Cambodia. Only someone who has lived in Phnom Penh can write in such depth and with a knowledge and conviction which enthralls and absorbs the reader.” —Katharine, The Duchess of Kent

When two elderly doctors join Voluntary Service Overseas, they find themselves in unusual circumstanceswhen they arrive in Cambodia. Together these women face not only humid weather, cockroaches, and cultural obstacles, but also something far more challenging: the harsh realities of a country still reeling from the prolonged terrors of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. With a generosity of spirit and an unquenchable sense of humor they plunge into the maelstrom of lawlessness where life is cheap, and guns and greed prevail. This third edition contains a postscript considering events since 2003, bringing the reader up to date with the situation in Cambodia as it is today.

Order Red Lights and Green Lizards: A Cambodian Adventure: Liz Anderson form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Open the cover and discover a remarkable design! The map and guide is fully cross referenced for instant, effortless navigation between popout and guide, making this the easiest guidebook you’ll ever use. Well written text covers sights, shopping, entertainment, food, practical information and where to stay. With a durable stunning laminated cover, this is the perfect map and guide combination for your trip to Tokyo.

Order Tokyo (AA Popout Cityguides) form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Review
"…the question is, how good a writer is Janet Brown? The answer is very good indeed. She has a fine eye for observation and a fluid and funny style." –The Nation, March 29, 2009

"Janet Brown writes expertly and beautifully about the wacky day-to-day experiences of a farang woman in Bangkok." –Acclimate magazine, February 2009

"Janet Brown’s experiences in Thailand are chronicled in short essays that bypass the usual tourist spots and concepts and present an intimate and revealing understanding of Bangkok and the Thai way of life from a female foreigner’s fascinated point of view." –BC Magazine, January 15, 2009

"Full of grace, humor and insights into an era that is fast disappearing, Tone Deaf in Bangkok is a refreshing break from the usual ex-pat tales of sexploits in Patpong and Soi Cowboy." –Traversing the Orient, March 2009

"…this book did win us over. Partly it’s Brown’s eloquent, often lyrical style and nifty turn-of-phrase. Mostly it’s her yearning to understand life in Bangkok…" –Bangkok 101, January 2009

From her first bewildered hours to the moment that she reluctantly leaves, Janet Brown describes her experience of falling in love with–and in–Thailand’s largest city in short essays that give a frank and intimate view of Bangkok. Taking her readers away from the typical tourist setting, she tells how it is to live a Thai life in a foreign body. Nana Chen’s stunning photographs provide illustrations of daily living in Bangkok with images that take readers behind the postcard to a world that travelers rarely see.

Order Tone Deaf in Bangkok ( And Other Places): Janet Brown form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Review
…Lonely Planet for honesty, history, irreverence and budget.’ –Esquire

–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Lonely Planet knows the Trans-Siberian Railway. Our 3rd edition helps you build the perfect itinerary, perhaps taking in Moscow’s sumptuous art scene, racing on horseback across the vast Mongolian steppes, sipping green tea in the shade of Beijing’s Forbidden City, or sharing experiences with fellow passengers.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Essential tips on route planning, when to go and visas
Locals and experts name their journey highlights in a full color section
Insider advice on the best dining carriages, stopovers and vodka endurance

Order Trans-Siberian Railway (Multi Country Guide): Simon Richmond form Amazon.