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The Rough Guide to China 4 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

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Manufacturer: Rough Guides
List Price: $29.99
Our Price: $20.00
You Save: $ 9.99 ( 33% )
(prices subject to change)

Average Ratings:

With over 1300 pages and 150 maps, the Rough Guide to China is the essential handbook to this vast and extraordinary country. In-depth coverage of the entire country, from buzzing Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai to the ethnic minority regions of the southwest and Tibet. The authors give expert practical advice for every budget on where to stay, where to find the best local cuisine and getting round by public transport. There are also invaluable translations into Chinese script of place names, accomodation and restaurants. The guide also gives a detailed background on China''s history, politics, cultures and peoples. "Best guidebook" Sunday Times "Historical and cultural erudition combined with down-to-earth practical advice puts this guide streets ahead of the competition" Watersone''s Books Quarterly. 


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.1046
EAN: 9781843534792
ISBN: 1843534797
Label: Rough Guides
Manufacturer: Rough Guides
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 1248
Publication Date: 2005-11-21
Publisher: Rough Guides
Studio: Rough Guides


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• China (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
• The Rough Guide to Mandarin Chinese Dictionary Phrasebook 3 (Rough Guide Phrasebooks)
• China (Country Guide)
• Beijing and Shanghai (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
• China (Rough Guide 25s)


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: The best, but needs a new edition.
Comment: Having consulted the Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, and the Eyewitness guides to China on my last trip to the country, I can definitely vouch that Rough Guide is the way to go, with Eyewitness taking second and Lonely Planet a distant third. For my money, the Rough Guides have the edge on Lonely Planet in their critical-but-not-jaded tone, detailed practical information (more detailed than Lonely Planet), superior maps, informative and comprehensive background essays, and general elan (subjective, I know, but there you have it). That said, Lonely Planet does seem to have a slight edge in restaurants, but every place we ate at out of the Rough Guide was delicious. In the end, of course, which guidebook you buy depends on the kind of travel you'll be doing; I would recommend the Eyewitness guides without reserve for armchair and group travelers, or for those map-obsessed travlers who compulsively want to find their way around on their own. That said, the Rough Guide maps are more than sufficient, especially when supplemented with local tourist maps, which will inevitably be more up-to-date.

That really is my only caveat about the book; things in China (especially Shanghai and Beijing, cities most travelers pass through) are changing so rapidly that a new edition can't come soon enough. I marked an additional 20 subway stations on the Shanghai map in January 2007; this book was published in October 2005. In the meantime, I'll just say that the Suzhou Museum is now a must-see.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Much better than Lonely Planet
Comment: After faithfully using Lonely Planet for my trips to Western Europe and Southeast Asia, I can honestly say that I am a Rough Guide convert and will be using Rough Guide books from now on after using this book on my recent trip to China. Aside from the good maps, one thing I love about this book is the depth it takes to explain the historical and cultural significance of the places being described. The logistics isn't bad either since it contains information how to get from one place to the other. This has been a good read while on long-distance train rides and have been with me throughout my trip to China.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good guide to China
Comment: In short, there are two good guidebooks to China - 'rough guide' and 'Lonely Planet'. You can't go wrong with either of them, however 'Lonely Planet' is slightly more comprehensive.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth its weight
Comment: This book is the cream of the crop in China travel guides. Its is large and thorough and indispensible.

All information in this guide is thoughtfully organized and easy to follow and read. I also had the LP guide and did not find it as useful when navigating my way around the country.

As with any travel guide, it will not serve as your only travel resource, but will no doubt start you in the right direction when you are looking for something not covered in this book.

Well recommended, don't leave home without it.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Worked Well for Us
Comment: I took this book for two weeks of travelling in China with my husband. At the time, it was the most recently published guide book. I also like Lonely Planet and others, but felt that recent trumped other considerations.

We didn't use any tour company - we just set it all up ourselves. It was much easier than you'd think - don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Get some good travel books like this one, so you can learn which Websites are in English and let you buy flights with a credit card. And how to respond when someone says "Hi Kind Foreigner! I'm an art student and we're doing a showing. Would you like to see our work?" (Answer: No, thankyou, scam artist, I'm sure your work is nice but grossly overpriced.) Important things like that.

We used this book in tandem with the photo-rich Eyewitness Travel Guide to plan a volunteer vacation in China, with 2 weeks of volunteering and 2 weeks of free travel time. If I had to pick just one for deciding where to go, I'd go with the photo book, because nothing beats photos if you are trying to decide whether to take the Yangtze River Cruise or go to the Li River valley. But if I had to pick just one to actually get myself around China, no question it would be Rough Guide. Whereas the Eyewitness guide has lots of useful info as well as photos, the Rough Guide has ten times more (more pages, no photos, lots more space) and all the details needed to actually know exactly where to catch the train in the town, what bus number, etc. Rough Guide is what you'll need to actually get around. It was up-to-date enough for our use, and it's reassuringly detailed. If you can swing both, get 'em!

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