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Travel 8 Best CHINA Travel Guide Books  

adamchu
9.3k views 8 items

Eagerly assuming its place among the world’s top travel destinations, even more so since Beijing took centre stage at the 2008 Olympics, China is an epic adventure. From the wide open and empty panoramas of Tibet to the push and shove of Shànghǎi, from the volcanic dishes of Sìchuān to beer by the bag in seaside Qīngdǎo, a journey through this colossus of a country is a mesmerising encounter with the most populous, perhaps most culturally idiosyncratic nation on earth.

The sheer diversity of China’s terrain takes you from noisy cities fizzing with energy to isolated mountain-top Ming-Dynasty villages where you can hear a pin drop. Pǔdōng’s ambitious skyline is a triumphant statement, but it couldn’t be further from the worldly renunciation acted out in Tibet’s distant monasteries.

1
China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps Larry Herzberg - This first-ever humorous travel guide on China both dishes the dirt on the myriad travel mishaps that may befall any unsuspecting tourist and explains how to avoid them! Possible danger zones debunked include airports, hotels, hospitals, taxis, and bathrooms. Readers will learn essential skills like how to haggle, exchange currencies, cross the street, decipher menus, say useful phrases in Chinese, and more. The guide comes complete with survival tips on etiquette, a map, and resource lists. Don’t leave home for China without it!

2
Damian Harper - 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.

3
China Eyewitness Travel Guide DK Publishing - DK Eyewitness Travel's full-color guidebooks to hundreds of destinations around the world truly show you what others only tell you. They have become renowned for their visual excellence, which includes unparalleled photography, 3-D mapping, and specially commissioned cutaway illustrations.

4
National Geographic Atlas of China National Geographic - Boasting more than 300 full-color maps and illustrations, this essential atlas dramatically highlights the tremendous changes occurring within China—the world’s fastest growing economy and most populous place—as well as their global implications. National Geographic maps the entire country with sections covering all provinces—including towns, cities, and transportation networks—to provide rich, comprehensive, and meticulously researched coverage of China’s dynamic landscape.

5
Essential Chinese For Travelers Zhilong Fan - This is a handy reference to 2,000 common words and phrases in Chinese. As of this writing, February 2007, you could go to China Books and Periodicals website and download the audio in MP3 form for free. That's right, $0. I downloaded the MP3, and listen to it at home. It takes a little over an hour to get through the 2,000 words and phrases. The expression is first given in English, then a man speaks the equivalent slowly in Chinese, followed by a woman who repeats the phrase more rapidly in Chinese.

6
Cultureshock China: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette Rebecca Weiner - With over three million copies in print, CultureShock! is a dynamic and indispensable range of guides covering countless destinations around the world. The series is especially intended for travellers who are looking to truly understand the countries they are visiting and who might even consider residing there. Each title contains invaluable advice for the traveller to adapt seamlessly into the local environment and is packed with useful details on transportation, taxes, accommodation, health, shopping and festivals. Additionally, each book provides concise insights into the history, language, cuisine and business practises of each country, as well as explaining the customs, traditions and social etiquette in a lively and informative style.

7
J. Maarten Troost - Maarten Troost is a laowai (foreigner) in the Middle Kingdom, ill-equipped with a sliver of Mandarin, questing to discover the "essential Chineseness" of an ancient and often mystifying land. What he finds is a country with its feet suctioned in the clay of traditional culture and a head straining into the polluted stratosphere of unencumbered capitalism, where cyclopean portraits of Chairman Mao (largely perceived as mostly good, except for that nasty bit toward the end) spoon comfortably with Hong Kong's embrace of rat-race modernity.

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CHINA: Portrait of a People Tom Carter - China counts 56 ethnic groups within its borders. The descendants of Manchu soldiers, Silk Road traders and Lao hill tribes have their own cuisines, languages, and customs. American photographer Tom Carter spent two years on the road in China. Traveling by the cheapest transport and sleeping in two-dollar guesthouses, he lived side by side with the ordinary but incredibly diverse people of the PRC. The images he collected break all stereotypes of the Chinese.