1 comments about China A to Z: Everything You Need to Know to Understand Chinese Customs and Culture.

1. China is changing fast. Opening up to the West, morphing into an economic power house; ever so many foreigners continue journeying to this exotic and extraordinary destination rich in history, unique cultures, and remarkable sites. Multitudes of guidebooks published about the country today emphasize logistical details, facts, and figures, giving little heed to the nitty-gritty of culture and customs ever-so-important in a traditional society.
   
   Fortunately, May-Lee & Winberg Chai have produced a book acquainting readers with the intricate details of culture, customs, and etiquette that most travel books scantily touch. Listings from A to Z introduce readers to everything about China from current customs, contemporary and pop culture, to geography that outsiders are most likely unfamiliar with. Instructions on how to address people, the meaning of different colors used by the Chinese, attitudes toward bargaining, how to respectfully visit a Chinese home, how to avoid eating unbearable critters, proper chopstick etiquette, and the Chinese concept of "face" are all among the valued wisdom to be found in this book.
   
   Though some of the topics' practicalities and significance are questionable: The "Gay & Lesbian Culture" chapter is double the size of "The Great Wall" section. Not to mention any section that recounts the country's complex history falls short- the "History" timeline is only incidents where the Chinese have been victims in the past and I unfortunately wasn`t able to locate the whole history of the communist party which includes murdering over 30 million people, though the character of Chiang Kai-shek is repeatedly scorned and the entire account of the Civil War is often prevaricated altogether.
   
   Nevertheless, the overall aim of the book- to provide insightful, crucial knowledge for foreigners is accomplished quite effectively. The cultural "Do's & Don'ts" alone make this the perfect companion to any China travel guide.

No comments about Modern China: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions).

5 comments about Lonely Planet Thailand's Islands & Beaches.

1. This book is particularly helpful as it contains many detailed maps. As well, the accomodation section is very useful for the traveler who does not have any set plans as it helps to show several different price ranges from budget to high end & includes phone numbers & websites of them frequently.
   there are also tips for every type of traveler here in very detailed sections on every province in thailand. although it says islands & beaches there is a very good section on Bangkok city itself which is good as most people start & end up their Thailand vacation there anyway & spend some time in the city.



2. One of the worst guide books I have ever read Sparse inaccurate information. Even though published March 2004 tells readers a Tuk Tuk in Patong Beach costs 10 baht (it costs 150 baht!)Full of broad information obviously culled from other (older) guides, not learned by personal experience. Garbage. Don't waste your money.



3. I bought this travel guide for my upcoming trip to Thailand. I plan on spending 3 weeks, one in massage school in Bangkok and the rest at various dive sites in the South. So far this book has been very thorough on what to expect from Thai food, culture, etc. This is a great reference/guidebook. Supplement it with more current reviews/prices on-line.



4. Thailand's Islands & Beaches is a great book, as most of the books by Lonely Planet. Though you get tons of infomation that sometimes seems a little too musch. You have to learn to navigate around it, but when that is in place, it is really a big help.



5. I am enjoying planning my trip to Thailand so much with this book. Lots of fun

No comments about The Rough Guide to Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra.

5 comments about Trans-Siberian Railway (Lonely Planet Travel Guides).

1. What you'd expect from Lonely Planet--useful but not comprehensive. I would recommend getting both this and the Trans-Siberian Handbook. It can be a little difficult to find (especially if you don't want to wait 6 weeks).



2. The guidebook is just fine for sightseeing, hotels, restaurants, but for train information, there is almost nothing. Really, almost nothing at all. To take the Trans Siberian, it is very difficult to make stopovers, and get reservations for future trains. And you can't simply board the train in a city or town other than Moscow or Vladavostok, or Beijing. None of this is addressed in the book. So, it's great to have tons of pages of sightseeing information, but for places almost no one will get to, due to the difficulty of reserving future trains.
   
   There is almost virtually no information on how to book the train, or recommendations on how to book it, or where to book it, or the wide range in prices. Hardly anything about the different classes. Hardly anything about the cabins, onboard food, how to buy food at the stations, is there an electrical outlet, train etiquette, etc.
   
   I was very disappoined in the lack of practical information needed. The Trans Siberian is NOT as easy to book as a train from say London to Paris, and the book doesn't address that.



3. As the title says, I found the book a very useful guide. Since I currently live in China, I was mostly just using the portions for Mongolia, and Russia.
   
   My only complaint is the switching around of currency used. Sometime in the Russian portion prices would be listed in US dollars, other times Rubles, and sometimes in Euros. It would have been much better to pick one currency and stick with it. A minor complaint.



4. I was overall disappointed.
   The guide was useful to plan the trip, but much less once on the spot. Quite a bit of information is erronous or outdated (e.g. restaurants/hotels do not exist or are priced over double of what stated, museums have been closed or moved), which especially in Moscow and Yekaterinenburg led to cross-city walks and travels at the end of which we found nothing. This is especially for what concerns the Moscow to Yekaterinenburg part; pages on St. Petersburg, China, Mongolia and the Irkutsk area were much more useful.
   Train and bus info: there is quite a lot of information if you are heading in the St. Petersburg to Beijing direction, but no special indications for if you are taking the opposite direction.
   Last point: guide suggestions are generally targeted to a welthier-than-backpacker budget (though Galina in Moscow was great!).



5. This gives a very comprehensive account of the various routes on the trans siberian, i'v chosen vladivostok to st petersburg! will have my guidebook close at hand during my trip!

5 comments about A Year in Japan.

1. This is such a lovely book, with each page a gift of grace and beauty and humor as it seems to capture through its aesthetic, the sensibilities, colors and tone of Japan and the Japanese people. I have not yet had the opportunity to travel to this rich and fascinating country, but Kate Williamson's book is a delicious enticement to make it happen.



2. This is an even more beautiful book than I thought it would be. As with all illustrated books, how much you like it will depend on how much you like the illustrator's style. Luckily, I love Kate T. Williamson's style, rendered simply with black outlines and bright colours. I lived in Tokyo for three years and felt that she captured much of what is memorable and visually interesting about Japan - that I would've liked to capture myself if I could draw...



3. Don't spend your money on this book. I was through within 30 minutes. It's a bunch of drawn pictures with a few sentences to each picture. I don't quite know what to say to this book, but it's really not a book. It's more like a well-meant children's diary with drawn illustrations (sometimes 1 small branch over 2 pages and nothing more). There is SOOOOOO much wasted space and paper! There is no subsence to this book whatsoever and very few and poor explanations. I think the author would have been better off taking beautiful pictures of Japan, which speak for themselves, instead of these child-like drawings that bring you anything but close to Japan. I hate to be so mean, but the book really isn't even worth $5. I just don't understand the purpuse of so much wasted space and paper. It's almost like she didn't know how to fill all those pages....



4. Why bother with this book? If the author were creating this for herself (i.e., like the way we write in our own journals) that's perfectly fine. But for an audience other than the self, this books is useless, and meaningless. For an audience other than the self, the author needs to give more in-depth illustrations and textual explanations. Pictures do not speak for themselves when one is a stranger to the place the pictures come from.
   
   Do not buy this book. Go to your local bookstore and read/glance at the darn thing for 20 minutes (or less) and you'll be done.



5. This beautiful book contains a wealth of detail, both in the artwork itself and in the author's commentary. The scenes will be instantly familiar to anyone who has visited Japan, and if you haven't, this book just might make you want to go. The artwork is complemented by the author's observations on Japanese visual culture - everything from package-wrapping to geisha style. The book allows you to see Japan not from a tourist's point of view but through an artist's eye.
   
   In my opinion, some reviewers have missed the point - this book does not claim to be a novel, a travel guide, or even a memoir. It's simply a window into the everyday beauty of life in Japan.

2 comments about Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon.

1. As a frequent traveller to Bhutan, mesmerized from the first step into the country by the beauty of the landscape and its people, and fascinated by the rural life-style there, this unique photographic portrayal of the country by region and cultural group is a special treasure in my collection. For anyone with even a passing curiosity about this land that is undergoing a phenomenal cultural revolution, this book is a necessity. For the would-be travelers, it will awaken your senses before you arrive, and for the vicarious adventurers who will see Bhutan only from the comfort of their armchair, there has never been a more beautiful way to peek into the remote corners of Bhutan that are rarely viewed by even the local people and never by foreigners. Kadinchey la, John Berthold!



2. This beautifully photographed, written and published book was more than I had expected. It really shows this land at it's best. Now, I cannot wait to see it for myself.

No comments about Fodor's China, 5th Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides).

1 comments about Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War And Political Chaos in the Post-soviet Caucasus.

1. Knowing little about the country, I was looking for some background reading on a recent visit. This book served a both a great introduction to the country/region and was very entertaining. I found myself having a hard time putting it down. The history could be a little more developed but that may take away from its overall readability. I have already bought and recommened this book to others traveling to the area.

2 comments about Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433 (Library of World Biography Series) (Library of World Biography).

1. The table of contents, which I've reproduced at the end of this, gives a good idea of the book's coverage and organization. Dreyer is a professor of history at the University of Miami, where he teaches Asian history, Chinese history, and military history. His previous publications include studies of early Ming political history (based on his 1971 Harvard dissertation) and China's experience of war in the first half of the 20th century.
   
   The author surveys the secondary literature and draws upon some earlier reconstructions which he finds credible and consistent, particularly in the matter of the voyages' itineraries. However, he relies on the primary sources (and a smattering of archeological evidence) in every respect. Indeed, at the end of the book he provides his own critical translations of the key primary sources.
   
   He works through the background and issues in a methodical manner, carefully evaluating the evidence in light of his extensive knowledge of early Ming history. Naturally this does not make exciting beach reading, but Dreyer does a good job of making the exposition clear and straightforward. The glossary provides brief entries for all of the places and people mentioned, in the event one loses track.
   
   The only lapses I could see seem to be in his knowledge of European history, where he repeats a few obsolete views: "[W]hat drew the Western powers into the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia in the first place was the wealth they could gain by controlling the seaborne trade of the region." (p. 8) "[B]roadside firing and line ahead tactics ... only began in European waters almost two centuries after Zheng He." (p. 56) These are minor issues of degree that do not materially affect the value of the book.
   
   One very welcome surprise is Dreyer's judicious and well-informed evaluation of the design of the ships of the Treasure Fleets.
   
   Dreyer does not address the speculations and assertions of Gavin Menzies regarding far-flung voyaging, except to remark dryly on pages 29-30 that they rest on an assumption that exploration was a major purpose of the voyages (an assumption Dreyer demolishes quite thoroughly) and on pages 182-3 that it is very unlikely that the ships could have gotten far along Menzies' track before coming to grief. Surely the Chinese, with their nautical knowledge and skills, would have gone about exploration in a very different manner, had they had the intent.
   
   Throughout, the author is skeptical in the best sense, carefully examining and weighing the evidence on each point, unswayed by preconceptions. This leads him to many conclusions that diverge from those of previous authors, always convincingly. Unless and until new evidence appears (possibly from marine archeology) this is likely to remain the definitive treatment of this interesting and revealing facet of Chinese history.
   
   One of the best services Dreyer performs is to cut through the layers of projection and romance that have been overlaid on these voyages in respect of their purpose, conduct, and consequences. He insists, with strong documentary support, that the purpose was "to enforce outward compliance with the forms of the Chinese tributary system by the show of an overwhelming armed force" [p. 163, and passim] as a means of bolstering the Yongle emperor's political position and perhaps self-esteem. Dreyer scotches the notion that these were voyages of discovery or exploration in the European sense, adventurous though they were in their own terms. He makes clear their astronomical expense and how they contributed to economic pressures on the empire, and stresses that there were very real practical reasons (in addition to the undoubted cultural and political ones) for the opposition to them expressed by many senior scholar-bureaucrats. And he shows that far from being peaceful and amicable diplomatic missions they involved heavy measures of coercive force. It certainly lay within China's power to have constructed an Asian maritime empire much as the Europeans later did, but not within China's powers of conception. It equally was open to the Chinese to have gone exploring at least as widely was the Europeans were to, but that also was unthinkable in Beijing. And no one in China could do such things without imperial command.
   
   The book is modestly but well produced, with good binding and stock. There is one overall map, a diagram showing Dreyer's concept of the design of a "treasure ship," and a few relevant illustrations. Oddly the house style seems to eschew source notes, but it is usually possible to identify sources in the general notes at the back of the book. Overall, the publishers deserve thanks for a valuable and high-quality monograph issued at a reasonable price.
   
   TABLE OF CONTENTS
   
   I. The Enigma of Zheng He.
   
   The Chinese Tributary System and the Purpose of Zheng He's Voyages.
   
   Traditional Chinese Interpretations of Zheng He's Career.
   
   Zheng He's Voyages and Western Imperial Expansion.
   
   Zheng He's Voyages and the Course of Chinese History.
   
   Historical Problems in the Interpretation of Zheng He's Career.
   
   II. Zheng He's Early Life and His Patron Emperor Yongle.
   
   The Fall of the Yuan and the Rise of Zhu Yuanzhang to 1368.
   
   The Reign of Emperor Hongwu, 1368-1398.
   
   Civil War, 1398-1402.
   
   Yongle's Reign as Emperor, 1402-1424.
   
   III. China and the Asian Maritime World in the Time of Zheng He.
   
   The Purpose of Zheng He's Voyages.
   
   Patterns of Trade in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
   
   The Malay-Indonesian World in the Hongwu Era.
   
   Southern India and Ceylon in the Time of Zheng He.
   
   IV. Sailing to India: Zheng He's First, Second and Third Voyages.
   
   The First Voyage, 1405-1407.
   
   The Second Voyage, 1407-1409.
   
   The Third Voyage, 1409-1411.
   
   V. Sailing to Africa: Zheng He's Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Voyages.
   
   The Fourth Voyage, 1412/14-1415.
   
   The Fifth Voyage, 1417-1419.
   
   The Sixth Voyage, 1421-1422.
   
   The Last Years of the Yongle Reign, 1422-1424.
   
   VI. The Ships and Men of Zheng He's Fleets.
   
   Dimensions and Displacements of the Treasure Ships.
   
   Masts and Sails.
   
   Shipbuilding Notices in the Taizong Shilu.
   
   Shipbuilding Costs.
   
   Numbers of Ships in Each of the Voyages.
   
   Personnel.
   
   VII. Zheng He's Career after 1424 and His Final Voyage.
   
   Ming China in the Hongxi (1424-25) and Xuande (1425-35) Reigns.
   
   Zheng He's Career from 1424 to 1430.
   
   Zheng He's Inscriptions at Liujiagang and Changle.
   
   Zheng He's Seventh and Final Voyage, 1431-1433.
   
   VIII. The Legacy of Zheng He.
   
   Appendix. Translations of Primary Sources.
   
   Zheng He's Biography in Mingshi 304.2b-4b.
   
   Zheng He's 1431 Inscriptions.
   
   Glossary.
   
   Note on Sources.
   
   Index.



2. Edward Dreyer's book on Zheng He is a disappointment. I had known about Zheng He through Louise Levathes' When China Ruled the Seas and the PBS documentary, "1421: The Year that China Discovered America?" as well as a previous book by Dreyer about Ming China. I had never believed in the far-fetched theory that Zheng He discovered America, but I did feel that his missions were a tremendous achievement which were good for China and that it was a tragedy that they were stopped. Dreyer trivializes Zheng He's accomplishments. He denies that he furthered trade while giving example after example of how he did so. His only real contribution is to show that Zheng He's ships were less seaworthy than is generally believed because they were built on a river (the Yangzte) and had a very shallow draught. But then, they did not have to be capable of sailing far on the open ocean in order to travel the trade network between China and the Near East. I believe that these productive and promising voyages were halted because of the Emperor Yongle's other projects, such as the wars in Vietnam and against the Mongols, and his building of the Forbidden City in Beijing, which conflicted and competed with them for money. Dreyer denies this theory but says nothing to disprove it.