No comments about Yuanmingyuan Garden (Chinese/English edition: FLP China Travel and Tourism).

No comments about China: A Literary Companion.

1 comments about Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal Narrative of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China.

1. A terrific read! Central Asia, the giant blank spot in most people's mind, was explored by the great British-Hungarian traveller, Sir M. Aurel Stein. His book, originally written in 1912, remains one of the best and most interesting sources of information on the region. It has hundreds of photos, wonderful tales of adventure, and a mountain of information that will provoke and delight anyone interested in the region.

   And what a region. Once a major route between the silks and technology of China and the markets of ancient Rome, trekked by Alexander the Great, now buried in sand and the indifference of centuries. Stein's discoveries astonished his contemporaries. Modern explorers can use this source book to plan adventures to areas long cut off to the West.

2 comments about In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan (Kolowalu Books).

1. John DeFrancis is a name that anyone with any serious interest in things Chinese will probably recognise. He's written and researched more than one Chinese-language dictionary, and is the author of many books on things Japanese and Chinese both.
   
   He had a wealth of experience to draw upon, to include travelling, as the title states, in the footsteps of Genghis Khan through Northern China--a journey that would be impossible today due to the despo--er, because of political problems.
   
   Reading this book, I was priveliged to learn many things about the folkways and history of China that I never saw in other books, and I was entertained all the way through. Not many books make it to my "Keeper" list, but this one's a cinch.



2. Many professors have written memoirs of their early years -- how they got into the field, early academic experiences, etc. One of my favorites in this genre is E. Ullendorff's "The Two Zions". This book is not quite that kind of memoir. Instead, it is a travel narrative of the author's 1935 trek through the Gobi desert and on the Yellow River. The narrative account of life in rural 1935 China is fascinating, and makes this well worth reading. Anyone expecting tons of information on Chinese (based on all his other books) will find little. But the book is a great adventure tale and I recommend it.

No comments about Forty years in China,: Or, China in transition.

No comments about Travel China Guide - Guangzhou 2007.

5 comments about Cousin Felix Meets the Buddha: and Other Encounters in China and Tibet.

1. The book sinks the reader deep into the lives of modern Chinese people struggling with the rebirth of a nation. Lincoln Kaye recounts a series of encounters collected over four journeys through post-Tiananmen China. It is a frank, detailed, and fun look at modern Chinese life, in all its complexities and contradictions.

   The topics he chooses are ones that modern China is struggling with: a look at China's relationship with its ancient roots in a voyage to the tomb of the Yellow Emperor; modern democracy as it plays out in a village's political struggle; dealing with the aged and China's changing relationship to its old in a hospice in Beijing; and the question of minorities and religions in a journey to a Tibetan lamasery. Kaye's strength here is that rather than taking the approach of political analysis, he brings the eye of a journalist and the prose of a fine storyteller to bear on each situation. This approach bears fruit by bringing the reader into greater appreciation of the lives of the Chinese people and what these questions really mean to them, as opposed to searching for right or wrong.

   Just as Keith Jarrett never met a note on the piano he didn't like, Kaye's style seems to bring warmth and light to every character and situation he encounters. There is no one China, but with Kaye's acute and engaging observations, a tapestry is woven which captures the flavor of China. Kaye takes you there, points out a wealth of details, and leaves you to draw your own conclusions or simply to enjoy the astonishing ride.




2. I have no idea who Lincoln Kaye is, but he sure can write. The title doesn't do the book justice, but, then again, I couldn't think what would be a better one. This book is an interesting vehicle through which one gets a view of China, but more importantly a view of people and cultures in transition. I stongly recommned the book and am pretty sure this isn't the last we hear of Mr. Kaye.



3. I very much recommend this book. The author has a wry, quirky point of view about China and he conveys many vivid experiences and perceptions, leaving the reader with a disturbing sense of how hard it is to penetrate the Chinese psyche.



4. Anyone who uses the expression, "Promulgating the jeremiads" should never be allowed to write a book. Anyone who uses the word milieu 400 times in a 400 page book, should not be allowed behind the proverbial wheel of keyboard. Anyone who ever uses the word grandiloquent should seriously consider never generating a single written word again. What happened to the word bombastic? Did the Greater Thesaurus Convention of 2003 decide that grandiloquent was too good to be true and should henceforth be used inside every 100 pages of printed text? If you see a book that's written by an author you've never heard of, with a single title in his repertoire, garnering a measly 3 positive reviews (likely by friends), with used hardcover copies selling for 66 cents...you should ask yourself if this is a good investment of your time.
   
   It's not. This is the type of book that makes me happy to never have met the author. It would be everything I could do not to claim him full of grandiloquent hot air, and that being in his mere presence makes me dizzy. If I have to hear him think aloud about his ego one more time, I'm sure I would end up throwing the book into the local river, an action I contemplated all too often while trudging through this work of slop.
   
   In many ways, this is worse than a 1 star book, because every now and again it would leave traces of decency in the text, such that you felt compelled to continue reading. Granted, the last 100 pages offered nothing of the sort, other than the end of the road. Before I had lost hope of anything decent coming out of it, a nudge of interest would keep me reading one more section, then one more section, then one more...
   
   But it never comes to pass. The author, who uses words which can only have come about by repeated use of the Thesaurus in his word processing program, never realizes this hope. Kurt Vonnegut once wrote than any sentence you put on the page should either describe the pertinent scene or move the action along to some degree. While I don't entirely agree with that advice, it appears that the author fully rejects it, and spends countless hours discussing things that have absolutely no bearing on the narrative enclosed between the covers.
   
   If I wanted a personal vacation narrative rife with self-obsessing commentary, I would go on a vacation and bring along a mirror and a voice recorder. If I wanted to hear an endless amount of cooing, which his wife seems to do all too often, I would have visited a pigeon farm. The same goes for clucking. If it weren't for the picture of this woman on the back cover, I might actually think that he were married to a bird of some sort.
   
   It got to the point where I found it hard to read more than 2-3 pages at a time. With the above objections added to his shoddy detailing of the Chinese language and culture, it often ended with my putting down the book out of frustration as opposed to becoming tired, which is usually what causes me to stop reading.
   
   I find it hard to say many good things about this book, other than to suggest if you're big on repeated usage of obscure words, this might be right up your alley. Or, perhaps it would be more in-line to say it would be in your milieu. Admittedly, every now and again a decent wisp of story comes on, usually when the author is relating a tale someone else told nearly word for word. By the end, stories of other people fade into his whining drone of a narrative, so much so that...well, you probably get the picture by now.
   
   Highly not recommended. Stick with Any Tan, or Ha Jin, and keep your eyes open for better China (or Taiwan) travel narratives along the way.



5. I found this book very enjoyable. So much so that I am reading it for the second time, and enjoying it even more! Each section of the book reads as a trip into a new and different place. The uniting factor in each trip are the struggles occuring in China today. The backdrop is both exotic (for me) and very fresh and real due to the author and his wife's journalistic abilities. Constantly aware of their own preconceptions and ideals, they made sure to present the ideas and ideals of a variety of people met during their travels. One comes to recognize the problems inherent in trying to move such a large country forward towards a better life for all. The author does not suggest that he has the answer. Rather he lets the people he meet explain their ideas. Whether founded in history, religion, or politics, each person"s thoughts help unfold the layers of complexity that is China today. Well worth taking the time to read and savor.

No comments about Travels in the Regions of the Upper and Lower Amoor: And the Russian Acquisitions on the Confines of India and China.

1 comments about To Dream of Pigs: Travels in South and North Korea (Far Eastern Travel Series) (Far Eastern Travel Series).

1. It describes so vividly the backstreets of South Korea that you can see the pictures by reading. North Korea seems to be real axis of evel as President Bush claimed. Money is everything in South Korea and people even dream of furtune that is a pig. Leatherdale, the author/traveler describes what normal tourists can't see. You must read it.

No comments about Chinese Diary and Album.