1 comments about The Rough Guide to Shanghai 1 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

1. In the past I've been very happy with the Rough Guide series, having used it successfully in Japan. I like to have something other than the ubiquitous Lonely Planet so I don't show up at the same places as a hundred other tourists. However, this book may change my mind.
   
   While the content has been good and up-to-date (hard in the ever-changing China), the maps are close to useless. The problems:
   
   * No Chinese Characters! -- Cabs (and most Chinese) cannot read English nor pinyin. Try showing a cabbie in Shanghai a map from the Rough Guide and he'll politely ask you to leave his vehicle. There is a section on another page which has *some* of the most common places in Chinese, but this has limited usefulness.
   
   * No Grid! -- Open a 2-page map in the Rough Guide and try to find the dot for restaurant labelled #c. You have to scan the entire map to find it, unlikely other guides which tell you which grid-area it is in (i.e. "C-4"). Also, someone green-lighted the usage of both upper and lower case letters, so you have to figure out if the "c" you're looking at is a capital "C" or a lower-case "c". Finally, the spots are randomly placed and ordered.
   
   * Just Incorrect! -- More than once a street was incorrectly named or the restaurant/bar/hotel was not in the place the map said. Rather, it was a couple blocks away.
   
   * All Over The Place! -- Rather than have all the maps in the back or front so that it's easy to navigate, the maps are scattered all over the book. And even more troublesome, it frequently mentions a map to refer to without mentioning the page on which you can find the map.
   
   There are other issues, but these are the main ones. I'm in China right now and brought the Lonely Planet Beijing and the Rough Guide Shanghai. The LP was perfect, the RG was useless. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with it for the rest of this trip, but I won't make the same mistake again.
   
   It's clear this first version was rushed out without any Focus Group analysis on its usability.

2 comments about From Manchuria to Tibet.

1. This book is the only pictorial book I've encountered that not only depicts life and land in the obscure region between Manchuria and Tibet, but covers it absolutely eloquently. For anyone who is interested in this forgotten territory, this books illuminates the region with gorgeous, striking images and informative text. It is well worth the price.



2. Excellent and extensive photo's with very interesting text to go with the pictures.

No comments about CHINA GUIDEBOOK 93-94 REV PA.

1 comments about Buddhist China.

1. Johnston writes a fascinating account of the history of Buddhism in China. Students of Buddhism will enjoy the concepts presented and the meaning of many of the Buddhist rituals as well as the pictures of the old temples

No comments about Through forbidden Tibet;: An adventure into the unknown,.

1 comments about Cool Restaurants Shanghai (Multilingual Edition).

1. This is a great and comprehensive guide to some of the eateries in Shangahi.
   
   Plus, it's nicely designed!

No comments about Tibetan Pilgrimage.

No comments about China Remembered: A Rare Collection of Photographs from a Forgotten Time.

No comments about Dharamsala, Tibetan Refuge.

4 comments about Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things: An Impossible Journey from Kabul to Chiapas.

1. Explore Gary Geddes' emotionally charged, spiritual terrain with him as he passionately traces the pre-Columbian steps of Afghan monk, Huishen, to North America. The compelling poetic prose, humorous at times, subtly reveals much about the political concerns of China, the Middle East, and Central America while transporting the reader into a significant adventure that is both history lesson and pure escapism. Comparatively, think about doing the dishes while singing along to Bob Marley's "One Love/People Get Ready." It's at once engaging and liberating.



2. The premise of this book is wonderful - tracing the path of a Buddhist monk who is reputed to have traveled from Afghanistan, across China, and on to the Amreicas in the 5th century. One might expect, at the least, that a poet writing about his travels would produce a book that would have beautiful descriptions of people, places and things. At best, one could hope for exploration of insights and thoughts about what it is to be a traveler - actually and metaphorically, and speculation about the spiritual import of such a journey.
   Unfortunately, what we get in this book is a collection of places vaguely described by a depressed man who spends most of his time writing about himself and his reaction to the places so ill-described. Frankly, this self-described "grumpy" man is not very good company for this trip, and all we are left with is a sense of trip of wonderful possibilities unrealized. The only thing impossible about this journey is the writer.



3. What could have been such a promising book -- a modern journey through the historical route of a 5th century Afghan monk (Huishen) purported to have crossed the Pacific -- falls flat, missing out on almost every opportunity to provide historical context, relevant or insightful musings on the relationships between the present day countries and the world of Huishen, or even transcriptions of the records attributed to Huishen, which the author only obliquely references. Rather, we're left with detailed scatalogical commentary, unbelievably corny humor, questions so politically naive as to be beyond the pale ("Do you think Tibet will ever be free?"), extended commentary from the author's journal from times at which he was admittedly delirious, and more! The author seems to believe that the fact that he is a poet exempts him from things like "form" and "content" while he is writing prose, much less "information," "narrative structure," or "a good editor." Avoid this book at all costs.



4. I found this book to be engaging as well and for lack of a better word... fun. To me, this book is not so much about making political statements or discovery, or about trying to provide a dissertation on the turmoil in asia or the americas. I took this as a journal of a man who was trying to find himself just as much he is trying to "rediscover" the steps of an obscure monk in history. If you take it as such, you would find that the things he describes are much like what you would see if you traveled to places like cambodia or indonesia and you would enjoy the book. I did not like the abrupt changes transitions into a recollections or choppy timeline. The descriptions of the characters he meets are certainly poignant and sometimes revolting. However, Mr. Geddes ought not think that all chinese women are crazy about him.