Book Review: Lonely Planet China
commissioning editor Rebecca Chau, George Dunford, and Emily Wolman
Fitting the vast country that is China into one guidebook is a challenge, so it is no wonder there are eleven authors and five subject matter experts who worked on the material that comprise the 1032 pages of Lonely Planet China. Cartographers, photographers and language experts pitched in too. Those maps from those cartographers prove really useful in figuring out where you are and where you might want to go.
The book, in fact, opens with a a map that’s an overview of the whole country. That’s followed by a brief but also quite helpful section of photographs and essentially, best of lists. It is called Discover China and includes sections called Hike China, the Best of China, Rural China, Eat China, and Red China. After that, about a hundred pages of narrative introduces you, briefly, to life in China today, and takes you on a short yet thorough trip through the country’s history. There are also sections on food and culture. Next, the center of the book: holds sections with detailed guides on sights, background, lodging choices, where to eat, and other tips on the cities and regions of this part of Asia, from Beijing to Tibet. Each section begins with a page which includes a map of highlights and a three or four paragraph narrative about the the region. Then follow detailed sections on specific places. Major cities in each region are covered, and there is quite a bit of information on smaller towns and rural areas across the country -- material not often found in other guidebooks of this sort. Information on climate, transport, and local custom as it varies from place to place come in for pointers. There are also short narrative sections with information on such things as Beijing’s Forbidden City, spicy Sichuan food, and what’s distinctive about Inner Mongolia. Place names are given in English and in Chinese characters, helpful when reading street signs and asking directions. The section on Tibet has a selection of common words written in Tibetan as well. In that section, there is, for example, a sidebar discussing the different ways altitude sickness may affect you should you travel by train and by plane, and in the narrative there are thoughts about how the political situation in Tibet might manifest itself to a traveler.
Following the regional guides section, there is a part called directory, about forty pages of practical information, such as health considerations when traveling in China, what you may want to know about passport and visa requirements, ideas for shopping cities and areas, what normal business hours are, and traveling with children in China. A brief language section with material in English, phonetic pronunciation, and Chinese characters is included as well, and then to conclude the book there are short biographies of the primary contributors, detailing their connections with China. Any guidebook is necessarily a starting point and a reference, not set of facts written in stone. For such a vast and varied territory as China, Lonely Planet’s guidebook makes good on its promises to introduce the places and the people, and to provide practical reference for your own explorations of both.
Kerry Dexter is the Music Editor for Wandering Educators.
You may reach her at music at wanderingeducators dot com and also read her work at Music Road. Kerry has also written for CMT, National Geographic Traveler, Strings, Ireland and the Americas, and Perceptive Travel, among others.