This is one of the Lonely Planet `Best of' series: slim pocket-size soft-cover city guides typically containing around 100 pages. They are full-colour publications and print quality is good.
The inside front cover folds out to reveal a street map of `Greater Beijing' with place-names, districts and parks marked both in English and in Chinese characters. The inside of the back cover similarly folds out as a plan of the central area, with the Forbidden City dead centre.
The book divides into colour-coded sections:
* Introducing Beijing, its neighbourhoods and suggested visitor itineraries
* Highlights
* Sights and activities
* Trips and tours
* Shopping
* Eating
* Entertainment
* Sleeping
* About Beijing (history, environment, government, economy)
* Directory
* Index
Every page is illustrated with colour photography. Mini-articles are often inserted into the main text in coloured text-boxes - for example articles on China's one-child policy or the delicate art of cooking Beijing duck. The layout is user-friendly and the information generally accurate and useful.
One reservation would be that the guide's information about restaurants is not very useful for the budget traveller. You can find great food almost everywhere in Beijing in street-side noodle shops or in the shopping malls; you'll lose count of all the Beijing Duck-themed restaurants in the central area, and we never found a bad one. Also Beijing is a city packed with culture and history, and a further down-side to this pocket guide might be that due to its brevity it is a little short on detail for the visitor interested in the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs or the Great Wall: such a visitor might be advised to seek out a larger guide, or one more focussed on his/her specialist interests. Also, you'll need a larger-scale map to find your way around street-by-street, as the scale of those in the guide is too small.
However for most casual visitors who have only a few days in Beijing, the LP "Best of" guide is OK.
