5 comments about Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet.

1. I've always been interested in reading books about Tibet. And so I gladly embraced this 2004 novel by Chinese journalist Xinran. A mere 224 pages, it is a fast read and a romantic adventure. Supposedly based on a true interview the author had with an old Chinese woman who spent 30 years in Tibet, this is the story of Shu Wen, a newlywed in 1958, whose young doctor husband was reported dead in Tibet. The details of his death were not clear and Shu Wen wanted to find out the truth. And so she signed up for the Chinese Communist Army, one of the few females in the group who traveled to Tibet under spartan military conditions with the hope of finding out what happened to her husband.
   
   It took her 30 years to find out the truth. But that was only after she spent most of those years living with a family of Yak herders and befriending a former wealthy Tibetan woman who taught her to survive in the harsh landscape. I loved the part of the book which introduced the family and the Tibetan lifestyle. It also gave humanity to the Chinese invaders who saw themselves as bringing a better life to the people who seemed backward to them and much too steeped in religion. This made interesting reading. The author's language is simple and its clarity had the perfect tone to describe Tibet through this Communist Chinese woman's eyes.
   
   In this book, the Chinese are not the bad guys. And the theme made their conquest of Tibet inevitable. Less effective was the plot because it's hard to believe. There are just too many coincidences. And it's much too romantic. But then again, this is a novel.
   
   Sky Burial's point of view was rather refreshing because it didn't demonize the Chinese. And for that reason think it will best be enjoyed for those who can view it in context.



2. My book club selected this book, and I was dreading the "love story" purported in the title. But this is actually a pretty neat story about Tibetan life, and since it's supposedly based on a true story, I'm assuming it's pretty accurate. I knew nothing about nomadic Tibetan culture and their environment (except what I've seen in movies), and I enjoyed being introduced to it in novel form. I also enjoyed reading the Tibetan take on the Dalai Lama conflict between China/Tibet. The book is simply written and plot slow at times, and since it is a translation, I suspect some things might have been lost. I didn't have too much of a problem with the writing, but I didn't care for all the coincidences that occur toward the end. I'm assuming this is where the book is very LOOSELY based on reality. Overall, I do recommend it.



3. This book is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It's the story of Shu Wen a Chinese Dr. who goes on the most incredible journey trying to find her husband in Tibet who has been declared dead.
   
   What a love story! But not in the traditional sense. Shu Wen is separated from her Dr. husband of a short time when he is shipped off to Tibet while serving in the Chinese army during the Chinese invasion of Tibet in the late 50's. Shortly after, she gets word of his death and not believing that he is gone, she signs up with the army and gets shipped off to Tibet in hopes of finding him.
   
   The rest of the book is about her life and journey in Tibet for the next 30 years and the metamorphosis that happens as she slowly looses her identity as a Chinese woman and adopts a Tibetan way of life. It's an amazingly human and touching story.
   
   This book is such a tribute to the strength and courage of women and human beings in general, and it was beautifully written by author Xinran Xue, who brings this true story to life in a vivid, colorful, and real way.
   
   What impressed me the most about this book was that Shu Wen's story reminds us that no matter who is caught up in war and world changing events, we are all human and feel the same things: love, hate, fear, compassion, pain..., and that these emotions cross all cultures, races, and boundaries. This story brings home that we can get past our fears, ideologies, and prejudices and treat each other with love and respect if we are willing to be open.



4. An apologia for 50 years of genocide in Tibet by the Chinese, disguised as an "epic love story". Insulting to anyone who has been involved in trying to stop the genocide of the Tibetan people and culture.



5. A deeply moving story of love and spirituality. Beautiful, intense, heart wrenching -- and made all the more so as it is true. It brought me to tears. Not a story to be missed.

1 comments about Pocket Map and Guide Beijing (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE).

1. A perfect guide for a visit to Beijing for 3-4 days. Hits all the highlights, with beautiful photos and clear foldout maps. Will slip easily into any shirt pocket or purse. A great alternative to bulkier guides if you prefer to carry your book with you and are content to keep your information and visits to the top 12-15 sites.

2 comments about Planet Shanghai: Architecture Family Food Fashion and Culture of China's Great Metropolis.

1. I bought this book a month ago and have been looking at the images ever since. This is a great snapshot of Shanghai as it is now (or at least, a couple of years back) and what an interesting tale it tells. If you cannot tell by the cover, this book is (mainly) about Shanghainese who go round their daily business dressed in pajamas. Not just ordinary pajamas - some are really loud and colorful and others just should NOT been seen outside of one's bedroom. But here they are, authentic Chinese nighties worn in broad daylight. The book is also a record of a China that is fast fading away, as the Chinese get more and more sophisticated, and more aware of their place in the world. Is the pajama-wearing Shanghainese a dying breed? Very possibly. All in all, this is a great book with fantastic pictures.



2. This book combines two of my favorite photo subject matters, travel and portraiture. Consider it an insiders tour of traditional Shanghai where the locals go about their business in their pajamas. Not only is the subject matter interesting, but the images are well composed and just full of color and vibrancy. It makes me want to pack my bags, get on the first flight to Shanghai and go on a photo safari.

2 comments about Top 10 Beijing (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE).

1. This is a must have book while visiting Beijing. We would have been lost if we had not purchased this book. A real life saver.



2. This book came in quite handy on my recent trip to China. I plan to use it again in July 2008. The maps are updated and information all seems to be correct.

3 comments about Lonely Planet Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya, Eighth Edition.

1. I used this book during my six weeks in Nepal spring 2004 (trekking in Lantang, Helambu and Annapurna regions), and was glad to have it. In fact, I have my copy sitting in front of me right now! It gives detailed information on many of the better-traveled treks, along with some that are more out of the way. Plenty of information, including topo maps, to help you plan your trip or your day. Before I bought it, I sat down with several other guidebooks in an actual bookstore (yes, they do still exist!), and really felt that this one was the winner.
   
   The most major component that I felt lacking was that there are many small guest houses or tea shops along most routes that are not mentioned at all, or that have sprung up since publication. But I soon figured that out on my own, and simply asked locals and other trekkers for advice. Overall, I definitely recommend this book. Enjoy your trip! I can't wait to go back!
   
   *Note: Kathmandu has some great bookstores in the Thamel (tourist) district, and many (not all) books are cheaper than in the US (maybe pirated??). If you can wait, consider buying there.



2. If you are going the Nepal to trek, this is an invaluable guide. I was in Nepal for three weeks and I used this book everyday. Stan Armington knows Nepal better than anyone. He has help from people like Jamling Tenzing Norgay and many others. This is an essential guide to the trekking in Nepal.



3. Purchased as a gift - arrived in very short order and in great shape - what can one say about a book?

5 comments about Mandarin: Lonely Planet Phrasebook.

1. This book has almost everything you need, although i think you need some sort of knowledge cause its kinda hard too, but anyways this book its worth it, trust me



2. In my opinion, these are the best phrasebooks out there. The sections are all color coded and organized in an easy to use way, making it easy to locate the phrase you want to use. Much easier than the rest of them out there that are just white page after white page which makes it incredibly hard to dig through. These books will teach you what you need to know.



3. When I started learning Chinese this book was strongly recommended by a friend. What a disappointment; it's not suited for learning Chinese it's to superficial. This book could possibly be of some help on a visit to China, but if you seriously want to learn Mandarin - choose another one. On the positive side: This book has an appealing layout, and is easy to use.



4. I have no idea what most of these reviewers are talking about. This phrasebook absolutely uses pinyin (although it's possible that previous editions did not). This book was without question the most useful thing I had when I lived in China (for six months). Not only does it have excellent sections on grammar, etiquette, and non-verbal communication (which really you will use a lot more than anything else), but it covers basically everything you will need to survive in China. It also has every phrase written in pinyin, for you, and Chinese so if you fail to pronounce it correctly anyway you can always show the book to the person you are trying to talk to. That feature can be used even if you go to Hong Kong or somewhere else where they speak a dialect other than Mandarin.



5. Some of the negative reviews harp on this book for not using pinyin, but they seem to be referring to the 5th ed. The 6th ed. published in Sept. 2006 by A. Garnaut does have pinyin. That shouldn't be an issue.
   
   I have found this book useful, but it does have some basic vocabulary gaps. Also, I have been studying Mandarin for about a year, and I have just now found it really helpful. You could always point at the characters to ask questions, but if you are a new speaker of Mandarin, it won't help you if you have absolutely no background.

5 comments about Frommer's Hong Kong (Frommer's Complete).

1. Just got back from a quick jump over to HK and Macau for business and I brought this book along. Contrary to some other readers reviews, I found the book absolutely invaluable! The walking tours were quite insightful and with good directions and time estimates -I never got lost. Some of my most memorable experiences were from the walking tours in HK. The information was accurate and concise. It provided everything I needed to know about getting to the outlying islands on my free day, getting to the airport and getting around town. Nightlife recommendations were great for the foreign visitor on business. I compared the recommendations to that in Lonely Planet and my own experience and I thought the Frommer's was a lot more true to the scene than Lonely Planet. I didn't run into any snags while using the Frommer's book. I also took a side trip to Macau with the book and had a great time. Info was accurate, although the maps a little inadequate, but nothing a quick stop into the tourist office couldn't solve. I'd highly recommend the book and I'd pass it along to any colleagues or friends who might be going to HK since it never failed me once.



2. Just back from Hong Kong and of the three guide books I took, Frommer's was the most helpful. The restaurant suggestions were great. The maps accurate. The walking tours terrific. The only downside is that the design of the book is ugly. Really ugly. Also wish that it included information about the two closest cities in China - Guangzhou and Shenzhen so I could have left one of the guides home.



3. Loved this guide, excellent contents, great walks and suggested itineraries. It's a pitty it doesn't have pictures. It will be the ideal travel guide.



4. I just returned from a March 2008 week-long visit to Hong Kong. I used the 2007 Frommer's Hong Kong and found it worked out just fine. Good descriptions of sites, handy public transit tips (especially of how to purchase/use/return the essential Octopus card), reasonable reviews of hotels and restaurants, and decent Macau information. The book is easy (and enjoyable) to read; I feel it prepared me well for my first trip to Hong Kong. Combined with pamphlets and maps from the Hong Kong and Macau tourists boards I picked up at the airport and ferry terminal, I had all the information I needed for a great trip!



5. One of the reviews below declares that the author of the Frommer's guide to Hong Kong should burn in a hell for guidebook writers. I don't find this funny. In fact, I find this to be a pretty mean thing to say, and I doubt the author of that review would say such a thing to Ms. Reiber in person. The author of that review should be ashamed of himself, and apologize here in a follow-up to his original review.
   
   I am very familiar with the guidebook scene to Hong Kong, though I've never met Ms. Reiber, and I happen to think that her guide is one of the better ones out there. Her book has an honest and thoughtful tone; it also offers some of the more astute observations about Hong Kong to be found in the current crop of guidebooks. If there is a weakness to her guidebook, it is that it does not cover the more far-flung regions of Hong Kong--Tap Mun, Tai Mo Shan, and so on. But in a way this omission reflects well on Reiber and her book. Most guides to Hong Kong cover places like Tap Mun or Tung Lung Chau, but they provide such sketchy information that I doubt the author ever went there. Of course, authors never admit this. Reiber, on the other hand, has the integrity to only include in her guidebooks the places in Hong Kong that she has actually visited. In any case, Reiber's book covers all the locations that 99% of all visitors to Hong Kong go to. If you are that 1% of travelers who want to hike in the more remote areas of the New Territories or explore some of the more hard to get to islands, this is not the book for you. Otherwise, I can certainly recommend this guide.

4 comments about The Rough Guide to China 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

1. Rough Guides used to be my go-to guide books, with up-to-date, honest (not sugar-coated) descriptions, and great tips for independent travelers. I was excited to find that a brand new edition was published just two weeks before I started my vacation. But I just got back from a three week trip to China, and I truly cannot express this strongly enough: do NOT, for the love of God, do NOT buy this travel guide, especially if you actually need a guide that will help you get from one destination to another.
   
   The most critical problem with the book is the fact that Chinese/English translations are difficult to access, when they are provided at all. Unlike Lonely Planet, Rough Guide China does not write out the names of the destinations/hotels/restaurants/etc. in characters next to the entry about them. What this means is that you have to keep flipping forward or backward several pages to find out how to say or write it in Chinese -- knowing what something is called in English will do you absolutely no good whatsoever. While this may not sound like a major drawback, I can assure you that once you arrive in China and depend on being able to quickly reference this information, you will understand why it's a big deal.
   
   Even worse, NONE of the addresses are written in characters, or even in pinyin. I cannot even begin to say how many headaches this caused -- most taxi drivers in Beijing and Shanghai (and I assume in most other parts of the country as well) do not know where hotels are by their name - they really need the address. This makes the guide completely useless, causes untold frustration (both for you and the cab driver). And of course none of the maps has the street names written in characters either. There are very few directions on how to get to any of the hotels or restaurants by public transportation.
   
   All of this is compounded by shoddy editing, which means that not all of the destinations mentioned even show up at all in the page-long lists where the names are provided in characters. Also, some of the addresses are flat-out wrong -- so even if you manage to say the address and have it understood, you may find yourself giving the cabbie the wrong directions (as I did, after arriving at 1 a.m. in Shanghai, exhausted and desperate to get to my hotel, take a shower, and go to bed).
   
   If those weren't enough reasons to keep you from buying this guide, there are plenty of others -- bad maps, illogical layout, almost complete overlap with Lonely Planet re: places reviewed & recommended. This guarantees that you will never be far off the well-trodden tourist path. Was also disappointed with the meager sections on shopping - sure, everyone wants to visit the big fake markets at least once to see what they're all about, but those are completely geared towards tourists, and sell mass-produced souvenir-y stuff (much of it of dubious quality). It would be nice to have recommendations on where to find unique, artisanal, high-quality goods as well.



2. I'm leaving on my third trip to China. The Rough Guide is the most complete China travel guide.The 5th edition brings the guide up-to-date with the 2008 Olympics. Great maps, recommended hotels and restaraunts. Comprehensive, but not too heavy to carry along.



3. I bought this because it was new this year and I've heard good things about Rough Guide. I've used the last version of Lonely Planet from 2003 which was decent.
   
   This version can be summed up by disappointing.
   First, I like maps, it gives me a sense of where I'm going. There are few maps in this guide and the ones provided are pretty inadequate.
   Second there are not enough Chinese characters and/or pinyin to make this useful to anyone who doesn't have great chinese skills already.
   Third, it is disorganized and hard to find out which places are worth going to or not. I found it had to plan an itinerary based on what I read.
   Last the shopping/food sections are almost useless without addresses.
   
   I highly recommend you skip this edition of Rough Guide China until they produce a better one next time.



4. Disagree with Mr. M. Kibbee. I think this is very good guide book, it is a bit different than Lonely (I mean layout and in much less degree destinations), but not worse. Chinese/English translations as full as in LP (even more) and easy to use (IMHO), maps are very convenient to use - more colours (you have to have very keen eye for distinguish subtle shades of grey in LP's maps and hieroglyphs in text are too small). Don't worry about restaurants - eating is not problem in China, in big cities you will waste much time trying to find certain restaurant (too many ones) with either LP or RG.
   In general Rough Guide is much more substantial (interesting) than LP (guide itself and cultural aspects), but transportation (especially long distance buses) is a weakest point of this guide (LP has much more details).
   
   About 5th edition: They have much renovated Accommodation section (but I advise use online booking if available).
   Major questions to this edition - information on site entry fees and addition of new sites (almost lack of it). It seems that they just reproduce some chapters without checking of them. As a consequence you can not plan your budget on this information. Even one year old LP (2007) has more up-to-date prices and some new sites. The chapter on Xian is worse in this aspect (and why they didn't add account on Tomb of Emperor Jingdi).
   
   Nevertheless I think RG is one of the best guides on China and you will have difficult alternative between it and LP. I have both and used them both in China (4th RG and 10th LP). I like RG more.
   
   For three years from previous edition it is very pale job, two stars for novelty of 5th edition, 5 - for guide in general, 4 stars on average.
   
   P.S. Sorry for my English

2 comments about The Great Wall: From Beginning to End.

1. This book is as complete as anyone could want. It combines excellent photography and known history of the construction with commentary on the current area and the people of the regions it traverses. Highly recommended.



2. This book is in fact a logical and photographical study of the Great Chinese Wall (restored parts as well as all other parts). The restored parts nearby Bejing will probably be known by many tourists, but this book opens the way to all the other and lesser known parts of this world heritage monument. After reading this book I intend to pay a visity to some of these lesser known parts together with a visit to the Longmen caves.
   This book is certainly to be recommended .

3 comments about My China: A Feast for All the Senses.

1. Having lived in southern China for nearly 3 years, our family had nearly given up on finding authentic Chinese cuisine here in upstate NY. Thankfully, there is this wonderful book. Our daughter made us a holiday feast (including dumplings, yum!) from a few familiar recipes found here and we were almost back in Xiamen! Outstanding photos, stories, and great recipes. If you've ever lived in China, this is for you. If you've ever wanted to visit or live in China, this is for you, too! Try some of these meals and you will understand what real Chinese food is about.



2. I have all of Kylie Kwong's books and they are all great but this is her best so far. The stories add to the book but the real stars are the recipes. I've only tried a few so far, but there are so many already on my do list. There is a fabulous rare beef with Ginger sauce which got rave reviews from the family. Last night we tried the Hot and Smoky chicken with Ginger and Chilli - YUM. We do have an industrial strength wok burner which probably helped with the smokiness, but it was very good on all levels. I am a bit of a cookbook collector (500 or thereabouts)and I have a shortlist of books I think are really excellent. This one has already made it to that list - I knew from the moment I opened it!



3. Kylie Kwong was born into one of Australia's oldest Chinese families. She is a 29th generation Kwong, and a 4th generation Australian-Chinese. Kylie is known to many Australians through her wonderful television series, as the proprietor of the Billy Kwong restaurant in Sydney and through her magnificent books.
   
   `My China' is the fourth of Kylie's books, and invites the reader to travel with her as she rediscovers her Chinese heritage and explores the history, culture and cuisine of China and Tibet. This book contains magnificent photographs of places, people and food. The book is also a travelogue containing recipes specific to particular regions. There is a map, as well, so the reader can see where these places are.
   
   The recipes themselves are easy to follow, clearly explained and are accompanied by delicious photographs. Ms Kwong provides serving numbers based of shared meals (ie a recipe will serve 4 to 6 as part of a shared meal) thus enabling someone to plan how many dishes they might wish to prepare based on the number of guests and type of gathering. I particularly like her section on ingredients, and found the paragraph on the relative uses of different soy sauces especially helpful.
   
   In summary, `My China' is a delightful addition to the home library for anyone who enjoys Chinese cuisine. Those interested in Chinese culture and history will also enjoy this book. The photographs are simply stunning.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   Jennifer Cameron-Smith