No comments about China (Eyewitness Travel Guides).

2 comments about China's Southwest (Lonely Planet Regional Guide).

1. "China's Southwest" covers the culturally fascinating provinces north of Laos and Vietnam, so a better title would be "Southern China." At any rate it's one of Lonely Planet's best books and provides good travel information, including some very worthwhile off-the-beaten-track places. You'll find descriptions of the many tribal groups who live in an incredible diversity of landscapes that ranges from tropical to Himalaya. Text includes parts of the Tibetan Plateau, which spreads across northwestern Yunnan and western and northern Sichuan, a good place to meet Tibetans and learn about their culture. I highly recommend travels to the provinces covered in this book--Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Chongqing. None of the all-China guidebooks do the region justice, so this guidebook is worth getting even if you already have a China guidebook.



2. In general I always like the Lonely Planet books, as you know what you get: all books are following the same structure. It explains well what to visit, and what the best places are to check-out.
   
   A minor point of the book I bought (3rd edition, october 2007) is that the pages 137 till 168 are missing. So make sure that you get the right version!

No comments about Frommer's Beijing Day by Day, Official U.S.O.C. Edition (Frommer's Day by Day).

5 comments about The Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered America.

1. I have just finished this book, and I can say that it is excellent.
   
   This is a book about a search that was a solution to one of the all-time mysteries of global exploration, dating back to the early 1400s, decades before Columbus. I actually knew something of this mystery before hearing about this book, but I bought it in regards to another mystery. Two mysteries came together and - well, read the book!
   
   I was especially impressed with what the author did not try to do. He was looking for a solution to a riddle, and he looked under every likely stone, one after the other. Logically and methodically and thoroughly, he walks us through every option. As each one turned up nothing, he kept at it, until there were no more stones to turn over. He didn't try to push any pet solution(s) on the reader; he just kept eliminating possibilities, all the while thinking that the one he was looking at would be the one. And he thought of giving up altogether...
   
   So, what happened when he ran out of answers? Serendipity stepped in...
   
   In a true story, luck showed the way. And all the answers didn't come from him, not at all. But when the pieces fit, well, they just fit... And when they do, you have to recognize it.
   
   The book left me with some unresolved questions, so I hope the author can move on and solve those for me, too. I want a sequel...



2. The book received was consistent with what I ordered. It arrived in a timely manner.



3. Easy and a delight to read, Paul Chaisson's The Island of Seven Cities both informed me of the early Chinese in North America and inspired me to read more. Having already read Gavin Menzies 1421 - The Year China Discovered the World and complimented with some background while I was in China on reading Bamber Gascoigne's The Dynasties of China, I can't help but concur the Chinese had every tool, skill and knowledge to have almost conqured the world. Had it not for the Mandarins taking control in the late 1400's and closing China to the world, we'd all be speaking Chinese! Paul Chaisson uncovered an historic miracle of a magnitude yet to recognized on a strategic island off the East coast of Canada. Yes, he'll be chastised by the "experts" as Menzies has, but in the immortal words of Winston Churchill about truth; "...there it is." Great reading, hard to put down, well researched with what must be 30 pages of superb Notes and Bibliography! A must read for anyone intrested in the TRUE story of world history. I'm impressed! BTW: My daughter's courses in World History at the University of Southern California made Chinese history of world discovery as per Menzies' book required reading.



4. This was a great follow-up to confirm what I had previously read in "1421 the Year the Chinese Disvovered America" His research was extensive and his tie in to 1421 was great.



5. One of Architect Paul Chiasson's motivation to writing THE ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES: WHERE THE CHINESE SETTLED WHEN THEY DISCOVERED AMERICA was his life changing experience of facing mortality. Chiasson discovered he was HIV-positive. Although the book is not an autobiography of his experience, there is semi-autobiographical information that he shares with his readers, which inspired him to write the book, revisiting his birthplace of Nova Scotia and rediscovering his ancestral history closely linked to French explorer Samuel de Champlain. But the compelling aspect of his discovery is that upon learning of his illness, he hiked to the mountaintop on Cape Breton Island where past generations of his family had lived, and by accident, he came across ruins that may have dated back to the Ming dynasty. And with this discovery he formulated a hypothesis claiming that the Chinese may have landed in North America before European explorers.
   
   This books ties in with a previous book examining China's possible role and contribution to the exploration of the New World, 1421: THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED THE NEW WORLD by Gavin Menzies. Drawing from Menzies's discovery, Chiasson went on a two-year research expedition to finding more about the ruins and proving that they were settled by the Chinese. The Mi'kmaq, an indigenous people of the island, may have derived their culture from the Chinese, and in turn, helped French settlers to live and thrive on the island centuries later. But Chiasson's thought-provoking book is purely hypothesis, and extensive research by archaeologists and historians are still in order for his findings to be definite; if proven correct, this part of history adds another dimension to the understanding of world history.
   
   ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES is a fascinating read. Chiasson offers insight to the many facets of how the exploration and discovery of the North American continent and its various settlements included a global community of different countries from the West and possibly may have included the East. For several historians this is skeptical history, but for curious minds wanting to understand the discovery of the New World from different perspectives, this is an interesting book.

5 comments about Dersu the Trapper (Recovered Classics) (Recovered Classics).

1. This is really a fascinating book from several perspectives. A natural history and anthropological look at a time and place unfamiliar to most Americans.



2. A very thoughtful well written book which is particularly timely now even though it was written 100 years ago.



3. Having read this book many years after first seeing the movie Dersu Usala by Kurosawa, I found it thoroughly engaging. It is a chronicle of Arseniev's mapping journeys through parts of Manchuria around the turn of the twentieth century and of his friendship with Dersu. It is told with meticulous attention to the detail of the environment, with many small simple drawings from his journal, and with real love and respect for Dersu himself and his ideas. I was struck by the accuracy of Kurosawa's portrayal of the story and didn't expect the two versions to be so very close.
   
   The movie has been one of my favourites for years and now Arsiniev's book sits right beside it. They are both classics in that you wouldn't change a word or scene of them. The book and movie are treasures and are very highly recommended.



4. Dersu is a very moving story that gave rise to a wonderful movie. The book deserved the film. The film did elegant justice to the book. Akira Kurosawa knew fine material when he found it, and this is prime. It has nature, adventure, survival, the clash of cultures made more profound by a deep and beautiful friendship between representatives of those cultures. Really, though, it is too beautiful for politically correct description. Read it. Give it to your kids to read. It will improve everybody's outlook on life.



5. Basado en los datos y situaciones reales contadas en este libro se realizó uno de los más grandes filmes de Akira kurosawa.
   Un gran libro una gran historia

1 comments about Marco Polo for Kids: His Marvelous Journey to China, 21 Activities (For Kids series).

1. This has to be one of the best activity / history combinations I have yet seen. I used this book as curriculum for my homeschool, 4th, 5th & 7th grades. My two highschool age kids have even joined in the fun.
   
   There are fairly complex activities, such as weaving a wall hanging, and less complex ones as well, such as making yogurt. My children have thoroughly enjoyed this unit on Marco Polo.
   
   Ms. Herbert truly makes Marco Polo's journey come alive with pertinent activities, stories, tidbits, and asides. I also love how she starts with the perpective of one individual, on a personal basis, then leans out further into history, drawing the interest of the child further & further along, to a much broader perspective, then back to one on one with Marco Polo again. Most importantly, she does NOT leave God out of the equation; rather she dances about with it, allowing parents to delve into the religious aspects as they please, to the extent they please. While religion is not an overwhelming factor, it IS taken into consideration, and I believe any religion would feel comfortable with how she has tastefully addressed it.

5 comments about Bones of the Master: A Journey to Secret Mongolia.

1. I have not read a novel that captured me so much for many years.
   It is beautifully, simply and perfectly written. all the right things are said and the unsaid is equally present.
   a perfect balance between the story and the telling of it.
   Congratulations George Crane and Tsung Tsai!
   This story would make a captivating movie under the right director.
   
   
   I too wonder why this is not a best seller!
   I predict this book will become a classic and one day soon it WILL be a bestseller.



2. This book is about a man's eternal quest to retrace his past and rekindle the fires which forged his identity. I enjoyed reading this book due to its aesthetic qualities. Crane writes in a very simple way, however the ideas that the book covers are no way near simple. It starts off with human suffering, in the middle it depicts the struggle against life and its worst case scenarios and finally it brings us to a point where Tsung Tsai comes to terms with all that which he has been put through.
   
   The book covers a lot of events during pre-communist china; what people where put through and it really draws a lot of vivid images with respect to that.
   
   Crane is exceptional at setting the context of events, his portrayal of the physical environment through his perspective (as he goes with the Monk) and also from the perspective of Tsai gives two different and yet valid views on the same subject.
   
   This, although very subtle really draws a rich picture in which the story is set. Its a good book.



3. It is because of the humaness of the author that I found this book particularly fascinating. He is at once a seeker and a self confessed liar. Who of us isn't? I am so dreary of all of these books by those who have all of the answers. Crane, like the rest of us, doesn't even profess to know the questions. How refreshing. For all of us with the spirit of wanderlust and the desire to know things we can't even express, Crane is our very capable guide. May the god of his choice bless him.



4. It's difficult to say something original after 58 reviews! A book that get's so many is probably worth it.
   Let's start from the title "Bones of the Master", relics? A Christian would call them that. The corporal spoils of a saint are relics. To our modern christian mind the adoration of relics has something of medieval flavour and the translation of body rests seems really out of our time. To a Buddist monk this practice has perfect sense and so it seems to us when we are immersed in his cultural world. However, while we read we find out that the goal is not the fact in itself but the Way, the actions, the intentions, the experiences and so it dawns on our mind how religions are very similar. This is the principal reflection I made putting down this book, after a passionate and absorbing read.
   Since to remember I must cathegorize I firmly settled this book in the cathegory of "disciple and master" and I went back to my adolescent enthusiasm with Castaneda and Don Juan. I also brought back to mind the only book on buddist monks I read years ago: The third eye by Lobsang Rampa. A rapid internet search revealed that maybe Don Juan never existed and Lobsang Rampa was an english plumber. Reading the amazon reviews I found out that readers before me had experienced the same emotions. To believe or not to believe, does Tsung Tsai exist or not?
   But really these considerations are outside the pure emotion and pleasure of reading the book. It's a wonderful and absorbing tale, it teaches us something about Zen, about Chinese history, about Inner Mongolia, it makes us want to know more. I personally took down all the books on Buddism from my father's and my brothers libraries and have them stacked on my night table.
   The appeal these kind of books have for westeners probably depends on the fact that one has the impression of being able to understand a different civilization. But deep insight escapes because our differences in backround are enormous. George Crane underlines this point with great determination and much humor, showing us how reciprocal acceptance must be the rule in our multiethnical reality. Another point of interest is the emphasis on translation, and especially the translation of poetry which is the first interaction between master and disciple. To understand a different culture we have to be able to translate it into our own language. Translation as an exercise in comprehension.
   Another notation on language. The titles of the chapters are a poem of their own and very Zenish indeed. The broken english spoken by Tsung Tsai is beatifully rendered. How to forget: "Hurry-worry no good"?
   A truely enchanting book !



5. Not just a good travel story, but truly a great joint adventure between two poets who meet by "chance" as neighbors outside of Woodstock, NY.
   
   George Crane the Poet falls under the mentoring spell of Tsung Tsai, poet and Ch'an monk, who is intrepidly determined to return to his Master's burial spot in Northern China. The adventure starts heating up as the two poets circumvent the Chinese authorities to finally climb Wolf Mountain and find the cave where the bones of the Master are buried.
   
   Crane's storytelling powers are Big League - this is an extraordinary, multi-level narration. Tsung Tsai is depicted as he really is: with his broken English ("Hurry-worry no good"); the sufferings he endured fleeing from Mao's Red Guard; and the supreme faith that sustains him and his pilgrimage back to his past.
   
   This is a story about friendship and mentorship; these two characters are far above allowing a master/disciple relationship to occur. However, their interactions do have faint echos of the Don Juan/Castaneda apprenticeship. Crane tries hard to get "It", and that furthers the dynamic of this spiritual adventure.
   
   There are 2 seekers here: the monk-poet on a spiritual quest to recapture his past; and the New York Jewish poet in quest of adventure and a muse.
   
   This book is strong and good because it is a synthesis of many aspects of life: adventure, history, poetry, religion, and cross-cultural studies.
   This writing works because of the relationship these two men develop, sustained by their love of poetry.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

5 comments about Tibet Through the Red Box: Through The Red Box (Caldecott Honor Book).

1. I first encountered this book in my elementary school library and have since looked it up again. At the time it struck me as magical and wonderfully illustrated, and now (years later) I can appreciate its historical signifigance as well as its obvious visual appeal



2. I once had the great good fortune of seeing Peter Sis speak before a large audience of New York City Public Librarians. Charming, blessed with an uncommon eloquence, and funny as well Sis spoke of his work over the last few decades. From this speech I learned that Sis designed the poster for the movie of "Amadeus", that he was originally from Prague, and that one of his best works was something called, "Tibet: Through the Red Box". I was intrigued, but months passed and I filed away "Tibet" into my To-Be-Read pile of picture books. It was only with my steady reading of every single Caldecott Honor (of which "Tibet" won one in 1999) that I at last came to the book itself. I expected a title that was some sort of early-reader-this-is-what-Tibet-is kind of a thing. I had apparently forgotten that this was the man who brought us that remarkable Charles Darwin biography, "Tree of Life". "Tibet: Through the Red Box" is no mere picture book. It's a personal history and unreliable memory combined into the ultimate tribute to the author's father.
   
   In 1994 Peter Sis received a note from his father that said merely, "The Red Box is now yours". Rushing home, Sis found the box in question and opened it to reveal a diary kept by his father of his time in Tibet in the mid-1950s. Sis the elder was a documentary filmmaker, and as such he was sent by the army film unit to China to make and teach filmmaking. The job was supposed to be about the Chinese highway currently being built in the Himalayas that would open Tibet up to the rest of the world. While there, Sis was separated from his project and explored the world of Tibet deeper than (he suspected) any Czech citizen before him. In this book, Peter Sis takes sections from this diary and illustrates them with his signature dotty style. Interspersed with his father's written recollections, Peter includes his own childhood memories of the fantastical elements of the trip his father would tell him. There were Yetis that cared for him while sick, and lakes filled with fish that had human faces. The final meeting with the Boy-God-King, the Dali Lama himself, is expressed with riveting finesse.
   
   Back we go to that old question that comes up whenever a picture book doesn't fall strictly into a set category: Is it a book for adults or for kids? Which is to say, will kids want to read it, or get anything out of it if they do? And the answer, of course, isn't all that simple. As many of the reviews for this book already state, there are multiple uses for this title. Readers vary from reluctant teens to awe-struck ten-year-olds. What I've always loved about Sis's work is his ability to write something meaningful for people of all ages. So on the one hand you have a fun story about a father seeing fantastical things (it's no coincidence that Sis chooses to include a quote about Marco Polo at the end) and on the other hand you've a complex story of a son trying to figure out who his father is and at what price a world can be utterly destroyed.
   
   When I saw Sis speak, he made a self-deprecating statement that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. Sis said that when he was first trying to get jobs, he though the best way to distinguish himself from everyone else was to draw using millions of tiny dots. In retrospect, he realized this wasn't such a bright idea. For while the dot style was unique and much sought after, it meant he had to spend countless hours dotting and redotting his books. "Tibet" is dot-o-licious, this is true. And while not quite as insanely detailed as the aforementioned, "Tree of Life", it still an eye-popping wonder. My favorite section however, chronicled the father's trip through the magic palace of Potala, where every room is different. There's a red room that is "sunrise and sunset, heart of time" and a green room that is "square and circular, ear of earth". At this point the book begins to resemble nothing so much as the book, "Maze" by Christopher Manson. If you're a fan of crazy rooms leading nowhere at all, check out that book as well.
   
   Don't pick up "Tibet: Through the Red Box" if you're looking for some light picture book fare. That is the number one wrong way to approach this kind of material. Instead, fix yourself a hot cup of tea, snuggle on a comfy couch with a child or adult that you love, and page through the remarkable and touching story of one man's ode to his father. We should all be so lucky to have done so much, lived so well, and be remembered in such an evocative way.



3. I came upon this book accidentally while working in a public library. It is undoubtedly the best children's book for adults that I have ever read! It is my most favored possession and I read it 3 or 4 times a year and never cease to be inspired by it anew. Visually stunning with a magical story line that will leave you believing in miracles. Buy It!!!



4. promoted as a children's book, but truly a work of art for all to appreciate also informative for children



5. I originally bought the bought mainly because of its Asian theme, a subject my younger child is currently fascinated with. However, what was most compelling about it was not the subject but the perspective. It is through those Czechoslovakian eyes that the cultural experience became special: my son was not merely looking at Tibet from his perspective but was at the same time looking at a certain Czechoslovakia through Tibet's mirror.

5 comments about The Mountains of Tibet.

1. I asked friends who practices Buddhism about any books that they could recommend that I could gift to a young friend who lost a companion very unexpectedly. Although they said that the content does not strictly follow Buddhist principles they suggested it with rave reviews. I was intrigued by the delicate simple manner of the story and noticed an interesting element in the illustrations ( read it to discover for yourself!)The story seems to soften the sadness of losing a loved one, reminds the reader of how dying is a part of living and raises hope that there is life after. It also beautifully narrates how fulfilling and rich a simple life can be. The illustrations are soft and enchanting like the story and the ending is all embracing....



2. Gorgeous illustrations and a truly beautiful story make this book a rare treasure in Children's literature. A valuable addition to the book collection of Buddhist parented children. Explains the process of death and rebirth/reincarnation in a gentle and interesting way. Not weird at all and so suitable for children of non-Buddhist background as well as it provides an valuable insight as to how Buddhism/other belief systems explain death and the afterlife.



3. I checked this out of the library and read it when I was 4 and have loved it ever since. It's one of those "must-have" books. It's a children's book but adults can enjoy it as well. The idea of the book is very sophistocated but can be easily understood by kids due to the simple language and color artwork.



4. Although my 20 month old is too young to understand the story he definately relaxes from the calm that this book brings to me as we read it together. Beautiful illustrations too.



5. The artwork stands out and the book is worth the price for that alone. The story itself is also wonderful and gives a good starting place for talking about what happens to a person after s/he "dies." My daughter loves this book.

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.