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Product Description
Product Description
The Rough Guide to China is the definitive guidebook to one of the world’s most fascinating and rapidly changing travel destinations. The full-colour introduction gives an inspiring insight into many of China’s highlights, from the awesome scenery down the Yangzi River to the incredible Great Buddha at Leshan and the lavish Confucius Temple. Read expert background on everything from the treasures of the Forbidden City to the Buddhist art of the Mogao Caves as well as comprehensive information on China's history, politics, cultures and peoples. This fully- updated fifth edition includes an extended chapter on Shanghai and new colour inserts throughout allowing you to chose where to go and what to see, inspired by over 150 photos. Rely on our selection of the best places to stay and eat, for every budget with place names, accommodation and restaurants invaluably translated into Chinese script. Featuring over 140 detailed maps plus vital Chinese characters, this indispensable guide takes you from cutting-edge clubs in Shanghai to holy mountains in Tibet and from ancient temples to gleaming new skyscrapers. Make the most of your time with The Rough Guide to China
About the Author
David Leffman is an established Rough Guide author and inveterate traveller with a long history of visiting China. Simon Lewis first visited China in 1993 where he studied Mandarin Chinese, after working as a barman, teacher and life model in Hong Kong.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bought as originally planning a trip to Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an and needed a guide covering them all. This was more up-to-date than the Lonely Planet in terms of when it was published. HOWEVER, I agree with the previous reviewer that having now seen the Lonely Planet guide the Rough Guide is lacking in some areas. Number one is that it doesn't list the written chinese name next to the English - rather it groups 'useful' Chinese place names together...this doesn't bother me too much now reading the book on my sofa but it will bother me when I'm in China trying to get somewhere listed in English on p.10 but the written Chinese is on 'useful' page 18 (and knowing that I'll never find the page needed when I need it)...Lonely Planet and Dorling Kindersley both have the Chinese and English next to each other - in my opinion this is preferable.
Second - again, agreeing with reviewer above - there is a lot of 'background' which is interesting but there seems almost more background and history than practical suggestions for food/accommodation. I'm looking to use the Rough Guide more as a cultural read and pick up something else for the practicalities. Sadly as almost all were written pre-Olympics I'm not sure which to go for. I think Dorling Kindersley are bringing out a new one end of July 2009 so may wait for that. Although I usually think they just have pretty pictures and little substance the pictures could be useful if English/Mandarin fails (!)...and it will be recent - BEWARE the Rough Guide has a very old metro map for Beijing which will be totally useless now (it doesn't have any of the lines added for the Olympics!!).
Second - again, agreeing with reviewer above - there is a lot of 'background' which is interesting but there seems almost more background and history than practical suggestions for food/accommodation. I'm looking to use the Rough Guide more as a cultural read and pick up something else for the practicalities. Sadly as almost all were written pre-Olympics I'm not sure which to go for. I think Dorling Kindersley are bringing out a new one end of July 2009 so may wait for that. Although I usually think they just have pretty pictures and little substance the pictures could be useful if English/Mandarin fails (!)...and it will be recent - BEWARE the Rough Guide has a very old metro map for Beijing which will be totally useless now (it doesn't have any of the lines added for the Olympics!!).
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
i hired out both this and the lonely planet from the local library before buying and decided on the rough guide as i prefered the writing style, which seemed to make it a lot more readable and less factual than the lonely planet.
however once using it i found that it was wrong on a couple of occasions (with trains and comments on an attraction)and that it didnt list anywhere near enough hostels. having had the lonely planet (2006 version) for south east asia which i travelled just before china, i found it a lot more helpful as a backpacker on a budget. and didnt fill the book with hotels and resteraunts way out of the average travellers budget unlike the rough guide.
now this is NOT to say that the lonely planet is perfect as you soon find that these guide books really are to be used loosely, but on several occasions i found myself with other people trying to suss out a hostel or a route and those with lonely planets always seemed to come up with more useful information or better recommendations.
it was still useful at times and i totally recommend a guide book for china but the popular lonely planet is probably your best choice. however they tend to make their listed hostels pretty packed, so i recommend picking up a hostelling international leaflet that lists all of them in China, this proved to be a lot more accesible and suggested some hostels that didnt have that 'lonely planet route' feel to it! (you should be able to pick them up in any hostelling international accreddited hostel or just use the website)
hope this helps
however once using it i found that it was wrong on a couple of occasions (with trains and comments on an attraction)and that it didnt list anywhere near enough hostels. having had the lonely planet (2006 version) for south east asia which i travelled just before china, i found it a lot more helpful as a backpacker on a budget. and didnt fill the book with hotels and resteraunts way out of the average travellers budget unlike the rough guide.
now this is NOT to say that the lonely planet is perfect as you soon find that these guide books really are to be used loosely, but on several occasions i found myself with other people trying to suss out a hostel or a route and those with lonely planets always seemed to come up with more useful information or better recommendations.
it was still useful at times and i totally recommend a guide book for china but the popular lonely planet is probably your best choice. however they tend to make their listed hostels pretty packed, so i recommend picking up a hostelling international leaflet that lists all of them in China, this proved to be a lot more accesible and suggested some hostels that didnt have that 'lonely planet route' feel to it! (you should be able to pick them up in any hostelling international accreddited hostel or just use the website)
hope this helps
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have now really lost faith in the Rough guides having used them for a number of years. I have just come back from a long trip in China. The 2008 China Rough Guide is inaccurate on so many counts its impossible to list them all. It's not just that its out of date, some of the information was always wrong. I very much doubt if the authors or researchers have been to many of the places described. The maps are particularly bad, badly drawn, inaccurate and only suitable for those with perfect eyesight.
A fair portion of the historical information is highly selective and often totally misleading
There are political opinions that really don't belong in a Guide book. I might agree with some of them but this is not the place.
A really bad guide book. I STRONGLY recommend that you don't buy it. Maybe Lonely Planet is better??
A fair portion of the historical information is highly selective and often totally misleading
There are political opinions that really don't belong in a Guide book. I might agree with some of them but this is not the place.
A really bad guide book. I STRONGLY recommend that you don't buy it. Maybe Lonely Planet is better??
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good for planning trip
I can only review this book from the perspective of only planning a trip to China from the UK. So far so good though. The real test will be how it fairs when we're actually there.
Published 15 months ago by Ms. R. K. Weir
Rough Guide to China
Very useful book, lots of information, although we had booked a tour. Gave good information for places to visit, with the added bonus of Hong Kong being included.
Published 19 months ago by JJ
Okay but not great
This guide has some very interesting history sections and insights into the history of China which I enjoyed very much. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Ms. K. L. Gibson
BRILLIANT
Bought this after reading that it had more content but the same size as the lonely planet. It was fantastic, and I like the approach through the book. Very useful. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Suz
Needs updating!
As previous reviewers have said this book is full of background information and historical detail. I don't use guide books to source accommodation so I can't comment on that... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2009 by T. Bolger
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