2 comments about China - Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette (Culture Smart!).

1. I am disappointed with this book on a variety of levels. First of all, about half of it is devoted to Chinese history, which is not why one would buy such a book. One needs a "quick guide to customs and etiquette" to avoid social faux pas and to keep from accidentally offending people, not to learn about Chairman Mao's Long March. (The historical information is interesting, but sketchy at best, and shouldn't it be found in a different kind of book anyway?) It would seem that a whole bunch of this historical information has been added as filler to double the size of the book.
   
   Secondly, somehow the discussion of how foreigners are viewed by the Chinese made me feel vaguely uncomfortable, and I am not sure why. There was just something awkward there. (Maybe I just don't like stereotyping..?)
   
   Thirdly, while there is discussion of customs there is a dirth of "watch out for this" warnings. For example, we are warned that the Chinese view blowing the nose as being somewhat gross, so if you have to do that, leave the room. This is the kind of information that visitors need - no one likes rude folks, but it's hard sometimes to know what is considered rude in another country.
   
   Fourth, there is lots of other kinds of filler besides the historical information - like spending two whole pages explaining that cell phones have been very quickly and widely embraced in China, and how it was in the bad old days, like ten years ago. (Who cares...)
   
   Finally, the author seems to suddenly switch over in the last quarter of the book from giving advice to the tourist to giving advice to the business person, and goes on and on for pages and pages and pages about how to behave at a business banquet. Then she says that such banquets are becoming increasingly rare. So why did we just waste all that space talking about them??? Sigh....
   
   Save your money, and look up "Chinese customs and etiquette" on Google.



2. A Quick Guide To Customs and Etiquette is a new series of travel guides which seems so ideal I had to wonder why it has been such a long time coming. Each guide focuses on the customs and etiquette of each specific country and tells pleasure and business travelers what they need to know in order not to make embarrassing or insulting blunders in a foreign country. With a brief overview of the history, geography, and religious customs that helped develop the country, the reader gains an understanding of what to expect and how to respond. There are sections on the land and people, values and attitudes,religion & festivals & rituals, banquets and entertaining, visiting in a home, conducting business, communicating, food and drink, and more. These little guides fit into our purse so you can read one on the plane en route and be familiar with the society's do's and don't's as you arrive. These guides are terrific and important to each of us as the world grows smaller. You may even be visiting a cultural section within your own city, such as China Town, and want to have this guide to help you understand and appreciate another way of life. Excellent! Buy one for each place you travel.

3 comments about The Silk Road Journey With Xuanzang.

1. I picked up Wriggins' book mainly out of interest of the Silk Road itself. The book recounts the journeys of a Chinese Buddhist monk named Xuanzang in the 600's that travels a fantastic distance from China to the deepest corners of India in search of answers to his metaphysical questions.
   
   I would have preferred a little more engaging of an account (such as perhaps Undaunted Courage by Ambrose), as Wriggins tends to describe each location and circumstance only briefly and then moves on with the narrative. On occasion, a few of the accounts are descriptive and moving, but on the whole, it reads more like a lecture in a history course.
   
   This is a detailed book that will help readers interested particularly in the impact Xuanzang made on Imperial China and the world of Chinese Buddhism because of his travels and experiences. For an engaging travel narrative or for a more vivid picture of the Silk Road itself, you'll need to look elsewhere.



2. A criticism of the book (that is relevant to most general readership books today), is that the title does not exactly reflect the content.
   
   This work is primarily about Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang) the man -- what we know about his character from the extant sources, what his motivations were in leaving China, the content of his itinerary, important people he met, his hardships, triumphs, and the intellectual, spiritual, and cultural legacy he left behind. The book is next about Buddhism: it explores Xuanzang's exploration through the various scriptures of the different schools of Buddhist thought, his impressions on the "best" ideas of each, and then comments on the regional forms of Buddhism practiced and the various Buddhist monuments and sites of pilgrimage he visits along his journey.
   
   The sequence of events in Xuanzang's sojourn is of course narrated according to his progress along the Silk Road, but this is not a book about the Silk Road proper or its history; however, within its central, biographical framework, the book offers a brief discussion of the historical geography and regional political history of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
   
   Aurel Stein described Xuanzang as a "Buddhist Pausanias" for the depth, accuracy and quality of his geographical narrative. The primary motivation of this work seems to have been to make an argument for Xuanzang as a scholar and translator (and to show the impact this had on Chinese Buddhism and philosophy), not just as a geographer or a politico-cultural historian, as he is usually remembered. However the book spends only a short time discussing this toward the end, as an epilogue.
   
   Following on the previous review, the author's voice is indeed rarely extant in the text until this epilogue, as she prefers to narrate the substance of Xuanzang's experiences rather than discuss her own. In this sense I would call the writing skillful, engaging, and easy to read, not dry and dull.
   
   The intended audience seems to be those that know something about Buddhism, but are not familiar with Xuanzang or his immense importance to Chinese thought. The work serves as a charming introduction to the man, but it assumes a general knowledge of Silk Road and Buddhist history. The book does a good job of providing brief, but interesting details to the informed reader, but also will not overwhelm a general reader who is unfamiliar with the more important Buddhist sutra or the differences between Buddhist schools.
   
   Copious footnotes to the text, and endnotes that discuss the plates, are accompanied by a topical, selected bibliography that invites the reader to expand into the specialist material. The text does not suffer from undue editorial or grammatical flaws, which is nice to see.
   
   A very tight and thorough manuscript; four stars given for a fine introduction to the history of Xuanzang.



3. This is the revised edition of the Author's previous "Xuanzang: a Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road" of 1996. The book received excellent reviews but a few flaws were picked up. Wriggins has corrected most of these drawbacks in this 2004 edition that has slightly changed name: "The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang" pointing the index more on the travel route than on the character. This change of title was probably an editorial choice since the Silk Road is presently an appealing subject.
   
   Fortunately, this book is really about Xuanzang, the 7th century Buddhist monk, that traveled for 16 years and 10,000 miles from China to India and back to quench his spiritual search for the perfect form of Buddhism (he himself later on founded a rationalist chinese sect that lasted a few years), to acquire and bring back the original buddhist texts to undertake a meticulous and truthful translation of what was to become the principal Chinese religion for years to come.
   
   Xuanzang's journey and adventures are retold and condensed from his original "The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions" that he wrote for the Emperor Taizong and his biography written by his disciple Hui-li and integrated by the Author's travels and studies, that however are never mentioned as such.
   Xuanzang's journey started from Chang-an (Xian) and through the Silk Road carried him to Tashkent, Samarkand, Balk to the Southern deviation to India. Here he stayed for many years visiting Buddha's sacred sites and practically all the Buddhist monasteries then existing. He also traveled down to Southern India, without however reaching Sri Lanka and after 13 years he started back loaded with manuscripts, artifacts and also a white elephant, gift of King Harasha. On the way he met kings and scholars, he entertained courts and monks, he saw all the important monuments and historical and religious sites of medieval India ed he thoroughly explored the various buddhist schools and sects until he gained spiritual and mental satisfaction of his curiosity.
   Describing Xuanzang's progress the book takes the leisure of inserting images (beautiful photographs and art reproductions), maps, legends and connections to other cultural contexts so that every page is a new discovery. Much of the pleasure I experienced reading this book was due to the beautiful figures appropriately inserted in the text and the precise and explicative notes. More than 80 pages are composed of notes, legends of figures, glossary and bibliography.
   
   Another word must be spent for Xuanzang's legacy that is magistrally explained. His adventurous journey gave way to a series of popular tales and legends that were successively written down during the sixteenth century in the "Journey to the West", translated into English by Waverly and known as "Monkey" and one of the best known Chinese novels of all times. The precise description he made of all his sightseeing has represented the scientific basis for archeological exploration in Central Asia and Northern India. His translations of Buddhist texts are still utilized today. He is a part of the collective memory of one nation and in this era of globalization of the whole world.
   
   I read this book right after Schafer's "The Golden Peaches of Samarkand" and it helped me to immagine the Tang times in a wider context. As noted by other reviewers the Author takes for granted a knowledge of Buddhist thought during that period. If you get confused, a good help if you don't have other texts available is "The Religions of the Silk Road" by Foltz that gives a summary excursion of religious thought of those times.
   This book posesses a rare quality and that is the capacity of stimulating curiosity for further reading on the subject. When finished reading we have a complete knowledge of Xuanzang as a man, and we can't but admire his integrity, intelligence and culture but at the same time the small excerpta of his original writing inserted in the book are not enough to really satisfy our curiosity, so further reading is ahead!
   
   P.S. If you like books that narrate old travelers journeys without having to read the whole ancient texts read "The Adventures of Ibn Battuta" by Dunn, that in many ways remembers "The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang".

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!

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

3 comments about National Geographic Atlas of China.

1. I was expecting maps with much better detail than this atlas contained, especially from National Geographic. The best detailed maps I have found are the Nelles series.



2. Dozens of useful and attractively presented topical maps on a variety of subjects (population, economy, water, and so on); maps of the major cities in China; and the usual excellent and beautifully presented National Geographic maps of the country. Just what I was looking for.



3. Received the book quickly. Book was in excellent condition. Very pleased with this book.

5 comments about Frommer's China (Frommer's Complete).

1. To begin with, readers should know that this guide was severly pared down, which explains why there are so few budget hotels and budget restaurants listed. Many section writers knew plenty of cheaper hotels and restaurants, but due to space limitations the decision was made by the publisher to list only the upper-level accomodations. This is partly because Frommer's really isn't geared towards the budget traveller.
   
   The Beijing section is excellent, and you should go with their recommendation of staying at the Far East International Hostel, or the hotel across from it.
   
   I am suprised by the review that felt that the authors had never been to China. In fact, all of the authors were actually foreign residents of China. While this means that they have a more intimate understanding of their region, it often means that they are less focused on the area as a travelling destination, which may explain why they don't go into the kinds of historical and cultural detail that a travel writer (who is experiencing the city differently) might.
   
   
   Also, it means that much of the recommendations for certain sections of the book are not at all written from a traveller's perspective. In particular, the section on Chengdu focuses nearly all of its restaurants in the middle-south of the city. After hearing locations described in terms of their proximity to the US Consulate three times, it certainly makes me suspect that the writer of the section spent a long time there. In fact, 7 of 12 of the restaurants were located no more than half a mile from the consulate. Good luck finding a description of many places to eat within a 30 minute walk of the fairly popular Dragon Town Hostel (which, although offering pretty good accomodation, was not mentioned at all in the guide) located slightly northwest of center.
   
   As other reviewers have noted, the section on Shanghai is pretty worthless. Even the editor of the book will tell you this. Against his recommendation, the publisher cobbled on a highly shortened version of the already out-of-date Frommer's Shanghai into the Shanghai section of the book. It is out of date and not all that helpful as a guide.
   
   For those who travel to a new place just to try the food, you'll love this book. It has an entire section in the back listing common dishes, dishes unique to featured restaurants, and specialities. The listing includes Chinese characters and pinyin.
   
   If your travel plans include Beijing, this book is a must. If you're going only to Shanghai, choose any other book.



2. Frommer's "China Complete" tries hard to include a lot of information, but there's just not enough room in "only" 800 pages to pack it all in. Let's face it, China is too big a country to be covered adequately by an all-in-one guidebook. I'd definitely go for more specialized, regional and city, guidebooks whenever you can find them.
   
   For something more inclusive, though, I can suggest two possibilities, especially for first-timers: (1) "Frommer's China: The 50 Most Memorable Trips" and (2) "The Eyewitness Travel Guide to China." The Eyewitness Guide is very attractive and informative visually, while "50 Trips" has excellent descriptive text and not a single photograph! You could decide which one to buy, depending on your own preferred orientation (visual or text). Both do a fine job of describing China's many cultural sights: temples, palaces, gardens, and more. They are cultural guides, rather than "Frommer's Complete" all-things-to-all-people approach, but I prefer them for that very reason. In trying to do too much, "Frommer's Complete" doesn't really fit the bill.



3. I might give Frommer's 3 stars for quantity of content, but when I compare what they've written with the places I'm familiar with (and I've been in China over 20 years), I find their negative, jaded slant puts such a spin on some places that they are unrecognizable.
   For example, Frommer's online description of Xiamen reads: "Much of the island is a hideous white-tiled wasteland to match anything else in China, but even so, the odd turret and spire reflect the city's pride in its stock of original European architecture." From that description, one would have no idea that Xiamen is in fact one of China's most beautiful cities, loved by foreigners and Chinese alike for its natural beauty and historic heritage. In fact, Xiamen won the gold in the 2002 Livcom Awards competition in Germany, (the "Oscar" of environmental awards), and it has won numerous other international awards.
   The authors wrote that Gulangyu Islet is supposedly the "Piano Island" but "no one seems to have told the locals." Did they talk to the locals? Gulangyu Islet is known throughout Asia for its pianos (1 in 5 families has one). If their writing about Xiamen, my adopted home, is so inaccurate, how can I trust what they write about other areas of China?
   I'm used to the sarcasm of jaded travelers and their jaded travel guides; I even chuckle at some of it. But Frommer's takes it a bit far this time. They remind me of the fictitious author of the hilarious fictitious guidebook to the Asian country "Phaic Tan" who said, "I visit every place twice--the first time to experience it and the second time to complain about the changes."
   I don't think Frommer's need visit China a third time. I'll stick with Lonely Planet.



4. This 2006 second edition follows the first edition of two years earlier. Some of the detailed listings (including such things as hotel tariffs and phone numbers) have changed, a very few towns or attractions have been added or deleted, and a four-page introductory chapter, What's New in China has been added listing some of the few changes.
   
   The revision can scarcely be described as thorough. The remark that Chinese currency is "not easily obtainable overseas" has not been true generally since well before the date of this new edition; the report concerning the Lhasa railway, that "foundations have already (sic!) been laid for over half the track", speaks of a thousand-kilometre railway which opened for service on 2nd July in the year of publication, years after foundations for "over half the track" had been completed. The fewness of changes to tariffs, charges and phone numbers suggests that checking has been far from complete.
   
   Each chapter is attributed to an individual author. The puzzle is that, although with only one exception every chapter in the new edition is attributed to a different author from the chapter in the first edition, most of the text is identical. Nowhere does this edition seem to acknowledge the contribution of the original authors. Perhaps an essential ingredient of plagiarism is a degree of furtiveness that is lacking her, and perhaps the original authors agreed to their text being attributed to others; but the reader is entitled, observing the differences of asserted authorship, to expect revision and rewriting altogether more substantial than what has occurred.
   
   Any guidebook to such a vast country as China faces the danger that thinness of coverage will limit its usefulness, and that calls for the greatest discipline in deciding what should be included and what may be left out. In large measure, this book fails that test. In particular, it fails comparison with what has become, whether begrudgingly or otherwise, the industry standard - Lonely Planet.
   
   Roughly comparable with Lonely Planet China in terms of weight, Frommer's China contains substantially less text. The book has no qualities to outweigh that disadvantage.



5. We just returned from a month in China and needless to say we shipped this book back stateside. Very disapointed in it Was more like reading some other persons vacation instead of giving helpful tips of where to go and what to see.

1 comments about Culture Shock! China: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock! China).

1. Cultureshock covers most if not all the content of about 3 other books I've read on traveling to china. Had I read this first I would have not made some of my initial mistakes in arranging travel.

5 comments about Tibet (Country Guide).

1. Last summer I went to Tibet with this book as a NGO officer. This book is very useful, but no information about dalily life of real Tibeatian. Acturally, in the downtown, there are few Tibetian people. There are only Hun people, majority ethnic group in China, who enjoy their prestages. On the other hands, Tibetian people live in the northen part with surveillance camera. Since some of them are sterllized, real Tibetean people would disapper in this century, apart from the exiles in Indea.



2. I've never been to Tibet and probably never will get there, but reading about Tibet and Central Asia is one of my interests, so I bought this book to augment my reading. The book I was reading, "Younghusband" by Patrick French, told of the eponymous colonial Brit who explored and exploited Tibet late in the 19th century. It was interesting to compare his notes of more than 100 years ago with Lonely Planet's descriptions of the same places today. This book was incredibly detailed and well-written, and although I can't vouch for its accuracy, reading the other reviews here indicate that the authors were right on the money. Good job.



3. I've used Lonely Planet guides in all my travels. I've found their guide book for Tibet the best one they have ever published. It captured everything about Tibet intricately.



4. This book does what most of the Lonely Planet guides do best: provides clear, personalized reviews of places to stay, eat and explore wherever your destination may be. However, LP Tibet focuses mostly on Central Tibet and the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), with very little info and inadequate maps for what was Kham and Amdo (now contained in Sichuan and Qinghai provinces). This is where other Tibet guides, Gyurmed Dorje's Footprint edition in particular, shine. LP Tibet will get you around the TAR comfortably, but lacks the depth of information and regional exploration required for more intensive and insightful travel there.
   
   For the most extensive discussions of religious sites (but DO NOT USE these routes and maps!), try to find the "Tibet Handbook" by Victor Chan (out of print). Also, Keith Dowman's "The Power Places of Central Tibet" provides excellent, traditional descriptions of Tibetan sacred sites.



5. I look for two things in guide book: narratives that enhance my understanding of the place I am visiting and accurate practical information. This review focuses on the shortcomings of the narrative and ends with comments on the practical aspects of the Lonely Planet Tibet (7th Edition).
   
   The historical discussion of Liberation on pages 38-9 illustrates narrative problems which continue throughout the book. (The liberation section should be accessible on the amazon.com main web page for the Lonely Planet Tibet book.)
   
   GENOCIDE: In the first paragraph of the section the author states that " `liberation' led to 1.2 million Tibetans deaths". This information first appeared in the early 1980s along with accusations of genocide. Although the 1.2 million has often been repeated on websites, in movies, print and even in the "prestigious" British War Museum in London, it has never been supported by credible evidence. No demographers, for example, have ever provided support in a peer reviewed journals. On the contrary, the census data on ethnic Tibetans in Tibet indicate an increase of 53.9% from 2.3 to 3.8 million between 1964 and 1982. This is a much higher rate of population growth and absolute numbers than the preceding 50 years. (Yan Hao, Asian Ethnicity, Volume 1, Number 1, March 2000; accessible at the Case Western University Website http://www.case.edu/affil/tibet/booksAndPapers/tibetan.population.in.china.pdf ).
   
   CHINESE INVASION: The second paragraph of the section perpetuates the notion that Chinese military encounter with the Lhasa Tibetan Government forces was "an onslaught." While a very popular belief in the West this is does not appear to be accurate and seems to unfairly demonize the Han Chinese . The only confrontation of forces occurred at Chamdo and saw fewer than 200 casualties on the Tibetan side before surrender. The PLA treated captured Tibetan forces well, took away their weapons, made sure they had food and clothing and gave all soldiers and their families money and sent them home. ( See for example Lee Feigon, Demystifying Tibet (Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 1996), p. 144. ; Prof. A. Tom Grunfled, The Making of Modern Tibet (An East Gate Book, London, 1996), p108)
   
   EL SALVADOR: The third paragraph contains the narrowly true but misleading story about El Salvador being the only country with courage enough to introduce a UN resolution condemning Chinese aggression against Tibet. The story is misleading because El Salvador had just completed its own very effective genocide--called La Matanza --against its Mayan citizens and was behaving as a dutiful puppet of the McCarthy era US government . La Matanza was so effective that the remaining Maya gave up their language dress and customs overnight. El Salvador was hardly a bastion of human rights courage. See the US Library of Congress Country Study on El Salvador at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+sv0017) for a discussion of La Matanza.
   
   SINO-TIBETAN NEGOTIATIONS: The representation of the Tibetan and Chinese negotiations in the fourth paragraph is very misleading. The narrative trots out the old lie about the Chinese preparing "forged seals" to sign the agreement. The Chinese made personal seals for each of the Tibetan negotiators and no personal coercion was applied based on the testimony of the negotiators themselves. See Goldstein`s recently published, A History of Modern Tibet (University of California Press, 2008) . Goldstein's recently published History of Modern Tibet Volume 2 (2008) which has the most complete and very well documented exposition of how the negotiations went and why on pages pp 106-7.
   
   FOOD SHORTAGE AND INFLATION: The sixth paragraph perpetuates one of the biggest myths about the "occupation" of Tibet, namely how the Chinese troops caused a food shortage and massive inflation. Actually, there were more than ample supplies of food for many times the number of PLA soldiers in Lhasa. The food market was manipulated by Tibetan aristocrats and monasteries who were the large corporate landowners and holders of grain surplus. The intent was to cause tremendous hardship for commoner Tibetans and thereby build public sentiment against the Chinese who had promised improved conditions. . The de facto Tibetan regent/prime minister Lukhangwa engineered the fake shortages strategy and reaped great personal gain. He was eventually removed from office when the Dalai Lama assumed office as the head of state. Again, Goldstein (2008) cited above has the best exposition of this whole affairs; see Chapter 9, The Food Crisis.
   
   Note also that the author of Lonely Planet Tibet inaccurately cites Goldstein's Volume 1 of the History of Modern Tibet in the margin of this Liberation section stating that it covers the period 1913 to 1959. Actually Volume 1 covers the period up to 1951 and doesn`t deal with the Liberation period. Goldstein's Volume 2 (not cited in Lonely Planet Tibet) covers the Liberation period. I doubt the Lonely Planet author read either book.
   
   THE CIA: The final paragraph of the Liberation narrative makes passing mention that the revolts in the late 1950s had CIA covert assistance. The truth is that US covert operations began in the 1940s through to the 1970s including funding of the Tibetan Government in Exile. This is quite common knowledge discussed in many books but again Goldstein's works are the best place to start if you are interested. Keep in mind that this is the same CIA that was overthrowing the democratically elected governments of Guatemala and Iran at this time.
   
   CONCLUSIONS AND RECPOMMENDATIONS: The above criticisms are important for two reasons as one is about to make a large expenditure of time and money on a trip to Tibet. Tibetan culture, history and society are among the most fascinating on the planet with many unique features. It is important to look beyond the polemical perspectives and misinformation that is contained in the narrative throughout this book so that you can begin to see the richness and complexities that are there. I consider Goldstein to be the best source of information in English I have found so far because his works are based on meticulously documented source materials and interviews with all the key players. He is fluent in Tibetan (and I believe Chinese also) and more importantly has been doing field research in Tibet and among Tibetans and Han Chinese since the early 1960s. His short book, The Snow Lion and the Dragon (1997), is probably the best introductory overview. The Case Western Reserve Center for Research on Tibet is a great source of on line materials, references and links: http://www.case.edu/affil/tibet/. Goldstein is the head of the Center.
   
   Second, in the US (and Europe) we are flooded with misinformation about Tibet and China, as the above examples illustrate. The misinformation is highly emotional and appeals to our best instincts but comes from sources with their own (often hidden) agendas. The sources which I have cited here are valuable because I think they rise above self-serving controversy with quality scholarship and analysis. If you are going to step into this very controversial part of the world, you owe it to Tibetans, to Han Chinese and to yourself to become more informed. Another US military adventure will, as in Iraq, only benefit the Haliburtons and Lukhangwas of this world and hurt a lot of innocent people.
   
   Based on my reading and traveling I have concluded that there are cogent and credible arguments for Tibetan independence as well as for Tibet's inclusion in a multi-ethnic/multi-national China. I prefer the China "option" because I think we need a more multi-polar world with more examples of multi-ethnic states. We all have to live together. The West should be seeking ways for constructive reconciliation rather than encouraging confrontation by formally supporting China and informally supporting Tibetan Independence.
   
   PRACTICAL INFORMATION: With respect to the practical information in the Lonely Planet Tibet, I plan to spend the next 2 and a half months traveling around Tibet and may submit another review later on the practical information later. It has been my experience that Lonely Planet guides provide good information on lodging and transportation and are generally good on food choices, shopping, entry tickets and hours of operation. Their maps are the best I have seen in guide books: practical, accurate and useable. The maps are the reason why I continue to use Lonely Planet. I have been to Tibetan areas of Gansu and Qinghai. I found the practical information contained in the Lonely Plant China book to be as useful as can be expected for places undergoing rapid change.

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.

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.