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The River at the Centre of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time
 
 
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The River at the Centre of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time (Hardcover)

by Simon Winchester (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
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Frequently Bought Together

The River at the Centre of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time + River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze + Red Dust
Price For All Three: £20.05

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  • This item: The River at the Centre of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time by Simon Winchester

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  • River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (26 Feb 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140249125
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140249125
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 185,468 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #14 in  Books > Biography > Social & Health Issues > Cultural History > Chinese

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Product Description

Product Description

Simon Winchester undertakes a journey from the mouth of the Yangste River to its source. This is the story of the river, it's cities and their people, built around the author's own journey to discover something of the essence of China and her people, the Yangtse being her soul and centre


About the Author

Simon Winchester, who has reported from almost everywhere during an award-winning 20 year career as a Guardian correspondent, now lives in NY. He is the Asia-Pacific Editor for Conde Nast Traveler & contributes to a number of American magazines, as well as the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator and the BBC. His books include: OUTPOSTS: TRAVELS TO THE REMAINS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE; KOREA: A WALK THROUGH THE LAND OF MIRACLES; THE PACIFIC; PACIFIC NIGHTMARE; PRISON DIARY, ARGENTINA.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than a thousand photographs..., 7 Mar 2000
By A Customer
I visited China three years ago - the usual tourist routes around Beijing, Shanghai and Xian - but the bit I enjoyed most was the Yangtze cruise. Perhaps because I had been there, I was able to relate to this book. More importantly, I wish I had read in before I went. There is so much that I missed - both tangible and atmospheric. But even if you have never been or intend to go, the author paints a picture more vivid than a thousand photographs. The style is amusing and anecdotal but also deeply knowledgeable - history without the boring bits. It will have you crying at the Rape of Nanking, and laughing at Dr Ho of the mountians ( nice bloke , crap tea ). It's a riveting good read and I thoroughly recommend it
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A travel book with a difference, 24 Jul 2003
By Darren Simons (Middlesex, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
When I bought this book I was actually looking for a different book by the same author but this one caught my eye – I wasn’t disappointed.

The book tells of the efforts of Simon Winchester to travel all the way along The Yangtze river from east of Shanghai to the mountains of Tibet. There’s none of the humour of Bill Bryson or Peter Moore; instead this is more the sort of book you could imagine Alan Whicker writing.

At the start, Winchester explains some of the background to the book, notably explaining upstream and downstream, and introducing his travel companion whose real name we are not told for the risk of endangering her safety with Chinese authorities. Clearly, you’re reading a serious travel book. As the journey progresses he describes in detail Shanghai, Nanking, The Three Gorges (before the completion of the hydroelectric dam being built there) and Shigu (an astonishing place a long way along the Yangtze where the river undertakes a quite astonishing turn).

The book is written against the background of bureaucracy and officialdom which at various points threaten the continuation of the story.

As someone who has travelled only very briefly in China, I was absolutely fascinated by this book which perhaps in some way provides a little insight into a country which has so very much to offer.

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, 31 Jan 1999
By A Customer
I would recommend this book not just as an enthralling voyage of discovery but also as a sharply observed insight into modern China. It gives you a sense of the great geographical size of the country and its great potential for good or evil for the future, as well as informing us with lots of interesting stories from the past.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Just as relevant nearly fifteen years on
It seems the journey was undertaken in 1995 - not long after Deng's introduction of a market economy to China and, yet, this account is still valuable. Read more
Published 25 days ago by G. D. Busby

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but flawed
Very interesting and readable, but a few areas don't ring true (mainly some of the bits around his travelling companion and his position on the Chinese in Tibet).
Published 2 months ago by Shashi Desai

4.0 out of 5 stars Starter Kit for China
This book contains a wondrous selection of linguistic oddities - those that could do with the attention of a proof-reader (bindles, decoctions and similar), spellings that... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mrs. RM KLEPPMANN

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mystery Within
If you are interested in China, and the Yangtze in particular, this is a fascinating read. It is cram packed with information on the Yangtze and and the countryside it travels... Read more
Published on 19 Jul 2005 by frank kahney

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but largely overrated
This is a nice book, and it's well-written, and in itself it is interesting. But what it lacks is more than it's got: this is NOT real travel writing. Read more
Published on 12 Dec 2002 by sevenstar

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is enjoyable and informative...
... but it doesn't accomplish what it purports on the cover! We do not travel back through Chinese history as we journey upriver. Read more
Published on 5 Jun 2002 by pchandrruangphen

5.0 out of 5 stars For many reasons a wonderful, enthralling achievement.
To begin, an exbedition of this scale is ambitious. To complete it and document it so thoroughly is an outstanding piece of travel writing. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 1999

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