No comments about Lonely Planet South-East Asia on a Shoestring (Lonely Planet South-East Asia, 11th ed).

No comments about Walking the Gobi: A 1,600 -mile Trek Across a Desert of Hope and Despair.

5 comments about Vignettes of Taiwan.

1. Joshua Samuel Brown is the Mahatma Gandhi of restaurant criticism, the Rudyard Kipling of professional boxing, the Lance Armstrong of economic planning. His voice shines in this magnificent exposition of over a decade of perplexing customs and offensive odors.
   
   Proud and misunderstood like Taiwan itself, Mr. Brown regales us with tales of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, betel nuts, and how to avoid jail time by impersonating a mormon.
   
   This is a book to be read aloud by the fireside while snacking on extremely sour dried fruits and squid jerky.



2. I thought that I had a good understanding of Eastern culture. I was wrong. Where was Mr. Brown when we were making ill-fated decisions like the bombing of Cambodia?
   
   Anyway, this book is so funny that I think that I've soiled myself again.



3. What a thrill, what a depth of knowledge crammed in this tiny book...the understanding the author shows for this land and it's people overwhelms me...and I thought I like Chinese food before I read this book...oh my...who knew???
   
   My only complaint is the scant bulk of this tome...not weighty enough to keep a broken window open...but cheap enough to mail to all the relatives...
   
   Buy this book,
   Joshua's Mother



4. Vignettes of Taiwan makes for good reading. For anyone interested in learning more about Taiwan, Republic of China this isn't a bad place to start. The tone oscillates between academic and comedic and although it is rather small, there is lots to stimulate your intellectual and exploratory curiosity; much like the Chinese island-nation itself.
   
   Troy Parfitt, author



5. I thought that this book would be quite good, given the number of five star reviews it received by other Amazon.com users. Instead, I found it mediocre. The humor displayed by the author is interesting, certainly, but for those who really wish to learn anything deep about Taiwan and its people, this is not the book to look to. However, if you simply wish to read a mildly entertaining book, then this book would be fine.

5 comments about "China and the New World Order: How Entrepreneurship,Globalization, and Borderless Business Are Reshaping China and the World".

1. George Gu provides a depth of understanding that distinguishes his work from most other business books. His wide network of contacts gives insight into emerging trends. He provides useful context that western authors often lack and Chinese authors frequently take for granted.



2. Base on the number of book in relation to this matter so far I believe that no one has come close to capturing "new China's" spirit and meaning as Gu. After reading his second volume I found it to be hugely insightful on the current events of China and global affairs. It greatly explores the key factors that shape Chinese and global development in the next stages. It gives tremendous info and analysis on the Chinese government, politics, business and economy for any one's interest.
   
   There's a huge amount of info on foreign businesses inside China. You will be able to see about twenty five American and global multinationals inside of China that are studied. In the meantime it gives us a very provocative analysis on China's new role in the world. Gu details this general picture of how China is walking away from a practical society and embracing an open, restless and dynamic society. It claims that an overextended, self-appointed bureaucracy remains the key problem for China. To overcome countless technical barriers, greater openness, entrepreneurship and global involvement is all needed. Again, it's very insightful on the issues between China, Taiwan, Japan, India and West. I will add that his analyses on Japan-China line up are very interesting as well as Taiwan. There' a tremendous amount of info and analysis on China's financial, banking, insurance and stock market.
   
   Author George Zhibin Gu is a very outspoken and a well known Chinese journalist who has generally covered mergers and acquisitions, capital activities, business expansion, and restructuring. He's an insider who gives us scrupulous examination on current China and global affairs which is more than a reason why you should grab hold to this book.



3. This new book from Dr. George Zhibin Gu is a geo-economics and geopolitical masterpiece from an insider, someone that thrives his consulting work and daily life inside China, not writing or comment from a comfortable chair in London or New York paid by a western think tank, or only for academic proposals. His challenge is to write for a broad audience out of China. I must refer his clever suggestions about Taiwan - a political proposal for a a federation - and the way he sees the go global from Chinese emergent multinationals. It is needed a lot of courage for an insider to be so clear in his proposals and to identify the old Chinese problem - bureaucracy, the same that stopped admiral Cheng Ho and the Discoveries in the XV Century, that closed China for so many centuries and gave an opportunity for foreign powers to humiliate China, hyper-bureaucracy that in the Mao period pulled China for chaos and economic and social distress. China and the New World Order is a must reading. Jorge Nascimento Rodrigues, editor of www.gurusonline.tv and translator of Made in China (published in Portuguese language).



4. Part reference, part musing, part insightful and timely analysis, George Zhibin Gu's latest book "China and the New World Order: How Entrepreneurship, Globalization, and Borderless Business are Reshaping China and the World" is a welcome and refreshing read among the endless new titles printed on China today.
   
   Picking up on a focus of his previous book "China's Global Reach...," Gu goes further and identifies the chief impediment to China's latest and perhaps most difficult transition as the Chinese state itself. Gu reveals the seemingly historical inevitability of China's vast government apparatus but explains that Communist Party bureaucracy is unique in Chinese experience in the size and scope of its all-encompassing control.
   
   In topics relative to today's readers Gu ably demonstrates through the book that changes in China come from the revived entrepreneurial instinct of the Chinese. Along with huge foreign investment China's ever-growing private sector is the outside influence that is challenging Chinese bureaucracy as never before. But while the Chinese people struggle to create a law-based society and break the bureaucracy's grip on all aspects of economic life, the Chinese state seeks an equal footing among world national powers.
   
   "China and the New World Order" is nicely segmented into short but highly relevant chapters. As in his earlier works Gu deftly examines the pros and cons of numerous hot-button issues on China. For example he takes on the Taiwan - China knot and proposes an interesting solution, a federation or federal system as a means toward meaningful (and mutually beneficial) reunification although his federal system shares more similarity to a commonwealth in the opinion of this reviewer. Gu's look at delicate state of Japan and China relations reveals that Japan remains as apprehensive over Chinese growth and potential as it was in the past. In examining the India versus China debate Gu shows that there is far less competition (as Western press prefers to portray it) and more similarities between the two giants of Asia.
   
   There is plenty of current information here and the detailed contents and summaries make the book a good quick reference for anyone with an interest in what's happening right now in China. And there are goodies such as a lengthy interview with Mark Mobius and a foreword by Hoover Institute fellow William Ratliff.
   
   At one point in his analysis, Gu intriguingly compares the struggle in China to the old European church-state alliance. With that view in mind, what may be needed next and with luck what Chinese entrepreneurs may succeed in bringing is a Chinese "Glorious Revolution."



5. China has constantly been referred to as the sleeping giant. In the last 30 years or so it has surprised many with its radical economic transformation. Having been a non-capitalist country for many years, the sudden capitalist experiment undertaking was not only the surprise but also a bold step towards economic prosperity. China has formulated a vibrant front to strengthen its manufacturing, trade and finance industries to much success. It is a great example or a good case study for an International Business class.
   
   The impact this has or will create to the rest of the world is huge. With its vast consumption of raw materials e.g. copper, aluminum, cement & oil, other parts of the world would soon start competing for the same raw materials from other nations hence sky rocketing their prices. Just a few years ago, fleets of bicycles were visible in almost every major Chinese city. Now that has become history with many of its residents developing an appetite for automobiles. China therefore has become a marketer's haven for selling automobiles. This is a direct result of its globalization campaign.
   
   This campaign has come with its drawbacks. Environmental degradation has some very concerned. With its massive carbon dioxide and other industrial emissions, China is becoming one of the fastest regions to raise eye brows on issues regarding environmental protection (the US and China will atleast have something in common in that regard). With the economic growth, corruption & cronyism have cropped up. This has also lead to tension between China and the USA especially regarding the large China/USA trade deficit gap.
   
   China is also holding a large cache of dollar reserves which it then uses to purchase US T-Bills and other investment in the US . The US in some ways has come to rely on foreign investment for its own economic growth. Just today ( 3/5/08 ), Federal regulators said that the country needs to open its gates to foreign sovereign wealth funds. They went ahead to state that these funds foster domestic growth and provide financial stability to US financial markets and US companies.
   
   China is also flexing its muscles to other areas like Australia and Africa . Africa has been important to China because of its vast resources of raw material e.g. copper, aluminum, uranium & oil. In the next few years, this economic sleeping giant will be a great economic super-power to recon with.
   
   Hezron Karanja, Los Angeles, CA

No comments about The Silk Roads, 2nd: includes routes through Syria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and China (Silk Roads: A Route & Planning Guide).

1 comments about Shambhala: In Search of the New Era.

1. Roerich, Nicolas. Shambhala. This is a collection of dispatches during travels in Tibet and the borderlands of the eastern Russian frontier by the Russo-American painter, poet and mystic which date from the late 20's and early 1930's. If you like Gurdjieff, Roerich will interest you. He believed that Beauty was a divine principle that could be used to transform the world.

   Though the central section did not hold my attention, the first chapters about a Tibet long gone were fascinating. This was partly due to Roerich's idiosyncratic spelling which cast a new light on the meaning of certain Sanskrit words.

No comments about Fodor's Shanghai's 25 Best, 2nd Edition (25 Best).

1 comments about Practical Japanese: Your Guide to Speaking Japanese Quickly and Effortlessly in a Few Hours (Phrase Book).

1. This seems to be an expanded version of Let's Study Japanese by the same author. Big improvements are inclusion of color photos to supplement the line drawings and the addition of Japanese text to the still remaining roman-ji translation of the English phrases.
   
   Negative feature is that in the new format the book is no longer pocket size ,though still portable.

1 comments about National Geographic Traveler: Hong Kong, 2d Ed. (National Geographic Traveler).

1. This travel book is fantastic....I have several National Geographic Traveler Guides and wish they made them for everywhere. I have always used Lonely Planet exclusively but have been switching over to these guides instead in places that are covered by National Geographic. I work for an airline so I travel a lot, and these really are the best. They sometimes miss a few little details that Lonely Planet has, but the problem with Lonely Planet is there is often too much information and not enough photos/descriptions. The National Geographic books have tons of photos so you know what you want to see, and give great route and detailed itinerary descriptions so you don't miss anything along the way. You must have this book if you are going to Hong Kong! If you are backpacking you might still need the Lonely Planet, but if you are just traveling through or are visiting on business or pleasure buy this book.

1 comments about Chinese : A Language Map (Language Map Series).

1. I really like this product because in just a handy map sized phamplet you have access to a lot of word translations with the phonetics in paraenthesis. We will be going to China soon and this will come in handy.