1 comments about Shanghai.

1. Authors & publisher might wish there was a 2 1/2 star option, because that would be more accurate. But no way does this sketchy guidebook deserve a 3.

   It's a good size to carry around and there are some really nice little tidbits of background reading. But there is a real lack of practical usefulness with this guide. I really needed my other guidebooks, too, which is a shame... if you're in one foreign city, one good guide book should suffice. This one didn't, quite. I think it would suffice for someone coming in on the kind of package tour where all decisions are already made about where to eat every meal, and where to go. But if you travel independantly, this book simply doesn't measure up.

   The book provides a good, simple overview map of the city, which is good for the main streets and subway lines but I like to see neighborhood maps, too (which you will always find in the Lonely Planet guides). None were given. Transportation section in the beginning makes it sound like bicycling is a great way to get around, so it was very annoying to find, on the authors' suggested 3-day sightseeing itinerary, that a bicycle won't do, since so many of the crucial streets are closed to bikes. Why didn't they choose an itinerary that would include some of that cycling they espouse? No walking tours are suggested, either.

   I found the local expat weekly pulp magazine, Shanghai Scene, I believe it was called, a lot more helpful for finding great restaurants, shopping tips, and other meaty, useful info. In fact, the weekly gave phone numbers for all the museums I needed to go. This book gives none. Granted, Shanghai is the world's fastest changing city and no book can truly keep up with all the new hotels and nightspots, but things like the lack of phone numbers (of museums and restaurants) meant I was always referring elsewhere for additional info.

   The shopping tips provided were minimal and without embellishment. I passed lots of great neighborhood markets that would probably have been mentioned in other guidebooks but not this one. And text mentions the area where bookshops are to be found but neglects to mention that this same street is where you will see all the great traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting supplies. I wonder what other unique Shanghai gems are ignored.

   So while the book is glossy with photos and full of fun cultural sidebars, it lacks the nuts and bolts of a real traveler's guide book.

1 comments about America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat (Anthem Travel Classics).

1. Written almost 90 years ago, this book is a fascinating account of America. The author suggests that if Americans called its presidents "Emperor" it would be much more respectful and also give a title that could be used after retirement from office. Author questions why Americans do anything for an education but then are not given any religious or moral code along with the education. Comments about why there should be an international congress called so once and for all the world could decide the one way to dress are wonderfully naive.

5 comments about Questions of heaven: The Chinese journeys of an American Buddhist (Concord library).

1. If you are looking for a book about the current state of buddhism in China, this is not for you. The four stars are given to its enjoyable prose, not to the information it conveys.

   Well intentioned as she might be, Ms. Ehrlich apparently did not have a chance to understand the current revival of buddhism in China, being a tourist whose knowlege and DREAM about China was only from books and a few exemplary persons she knew. Recent accounts from oversea Chinese pilgrims painted a different picture. I suppose that with the brisk pace in which everything is carried out in China these days, many things can change in four years. Moreover, it would be surprising if the communists do not learn that in order to make these pilgrimage sites attractive to oversea devotees, at least a semblance of religious atmosphere has to be fostered. It wasn't surprising to read of the accounts of monks whose only practice in the evening was to watch TV. Those are the vestige of the turmoil and destruction of the Cultural Revolution. I only feel sorry that Ms. Ehrlich did not have a chance to read the corpus of works, in Chinese, that aptly and vividly delineate the deplorable state of buddhism in China in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. These deplorable sacrileges no doubt still exist but now there are many young and well-educated monastics who enter the order for authentic and admirable purposes. It is them that carry the standard of the revival of buddhim silently, unknown to the westerners--which is good, in the current political atmosphere.

   Ms. Ehrlich also did not (or does she) know that there is now a Buddhist college in Emei and that the abbot of one of its monasteries was a highly revered monk who had just passed away in his 90s (if I remember correctly) last year.

   To the contrary of the first reviewer, I do not find Ms. Ehrlich's accounts condescending, I only find some of the accounts inaccurate. There are major and serious problems in China and Ms. Ehrlich's insight of the materialistic obsession of the Chinese and the huge toll it levies on the environment is quite correct, although I am much more optimistic then she was. As I told my friends who complained about the filth and disorder of the Chinatown in Manhattan, what touches me more is the dynamic undercurrent of lives there. As a student, I have toiled for a few months in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant (although not in Manhattan) and have learnt that an outsider who carries too much delusion and expectation lacks the capacity to appreciate life as it is without being too judgemental. Afterall, what is the meaning of pilgrimage? Isn't it simply an amplification of the point of contact between our own minds and the great minds of the bodhisattvas embodied in these mountains? The mountains are in the mind and in essense has nothing to do with how the itinerary is run. A pilgrim with such a "mindset" will always possess the capacity to be touched even in the most arduous and grotesque circumstances.

   But then again, I am an oversea Chinese who is yet to set foot on China myself. In that regard, take my words only as a biased perspective and go see for yourselves, although if you are a westerner, that experience might always be one from the outside, sadly...




2. After reading a Gretel Ehrlich essay in the recent BEST SPIRITUAL WRITING, 2000, this book was a disappointment. For me, the best travel writing requires a sense of entrance into the subject. Describing her three-year visit to Bhutan in her 1999 memoir, BEYOND EARTH AND SKY, Jamie Zeppa explains the difference between arrival and entrance: "Arrival is physical and happens all at once. The train pulls in, the plane touches down, you get out of the taxi with all your baggage. You can arrive in a place, and never really enter it; you will get there, look around, take a few pictures, make a few notes, send postcards home. When you travel like this, you think you know where you are, but, in fact, you have never left home. Entering takes longer. You cross over slowly, in bits and pieces. You begin to despair: will you ever get over? It is like awakening slowly" (p. 101). Although Ehrlich's collection of five essays is interesting and informative, it lacks a sense of entrance into China.

   In May, 1995, Ehrlich travelled to Western China and Tibet to climb four sacred Buddhist mountains (p. 1). "Mountains," she tells us, "were thought to connect heaven with earth, spirit with body" (p. 8). She explains, "I had come to China to pick up threads of a once flourishing Buddhist culture and thought I could find it in their sacred mountains" (p. 4). During a cab ride to Emei Shan, however, Ehrlich fears she has arrived "a thousand years too late" (p. 3). "Bumping along," she also wonders: "Are mountains really mountains? Are mountains a form of enlightenment? "Are rivers mountains running? Can we walk through them? Why do mountains walk through us?" (p. 9). These questions remain unanswered. Hoping for a spiritual experience, Ehrlich only discovers "tourist sites," "gaudy" (p. 33), "dank and dirty" hotels (p. 35), "blaring karaoke music" (p. 36) and "tourist monks" (p. 24), all of which leaves her with a "sense of defeat" (p. 70).

   In addition to climbing Buddhist mountains, Ehrlich also went to China "to see where and how the animals lived, if their culture had survived" (p. 39). Her search for pandas leads Ehrlich to "dirty, cement stalls" (p. 48), leaving her feeling "sick at heart" (p. 49). However, Ehrlich's journey is not without its moments of sanctuary ("Lijiang"), and her narrative is filled with many informative digressions into China's political and religious history.

   G. Merritt




3. The title offers promise of a thoughtful, insightful journey. Instead, I got a shallow American's distaste for all things not Santa Barbara. On the positive side, I and a few friends were able to laugh hysterically at such passages as "Though I had come to China to climb Buddhist mountains, I also wanted to see where and how the animals lived, if their culture had survived."

   May I suggest that Gretel Ehrlich, "an American Buddhist," go back to school on the teachings of Buddhism.

   And may I suggest that anyone wanting to know about the state of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese culture [not to mention the animals' culture :-) ] travel to that wonderful, beautiful country. You'll find some of the most beautiful places and friendliest people on Earth. (And yes, I've traveled extensively in China, as well as places ranging from New Guinea to Europe, so I can validly compare and contrast.)




4. Although this book was originally recommended when I took a masters-level "Literature of Travel" course, this unique piece of literature has been calling out to me for quite some time. I'm glad I finally took time out to read it.
   
   On one level, this is a book about the spiritual journey of an American Buddhist as she climbs the metaphorically important mountains of China. On another level, this book painted an important sociological and historical portrait of China in the aftermath of Mao's tyrannical Cultural Revolution/Great Leap Forward. The stories relayed by Xuan Ke, about how the intellectuals were tricked into critiquing the government and subsequently tortured and/or killed is truly the stuff of nightmares. Yet, Xuan Ke understood the importance of honestly understanding the past and he uses his rotten teeth as a symbol for such remembrance. "My wife keeps asking me to get my teeth fixed. They are all bad since being in prison. But they are like the Great Wall; the history of my life and therefore the history of the Chinese people shows in them, so they will stay like this" The book ends with Xuan Ke wiggling his darkened teeth and saying "Remember these." (Ehrlich, 121)
   
   Despite the criticisms in some of the other reviews, I feel that Ms. Ehrlich is an American sincerely trying to understand a totally foreign culture while demonstrating a true empathy for the suffering, both in the past and in the present, experienced by the Chinese people. Her prose is both poetic and informative at the same time and I am looking forward to reading her other work.



5. Not being a fan of travel books, my comments may be biased. Years ago when I wandered the globe, my desire was to live as a part of the places in which I found myself. I made a terrible tourist. I mostly wanted to go where I could speak the language of the natives and getting a letter home took weeks. The world isn't like that any more, nor maybe has it so been for a while for tourists and travel writers. The four books by Gretel Ehrlich I have read run the gauntlet. "This Cold Heaven", tells of her visits to Greenland between 1995 and 2001. It best conveys a feel of what life is like for, maybe the last generation of, Inuit hunters who use dogsleds. And out on the sled is where Ms Ehrlich most wants to be. It is a beautiful book interspersed with Rasmussen's, diaries and descriptions of his life in the north. The reader gets a sense of how the Inuit world is put together, its roots, some differences between various groups and the challenges it faces, at the edge of the internet age. The greatest changes, to a relatively remote First Nation in Canada I am familiar with, were brought about by television. A kind of passivity set in: no more making music and living by one's body became less central. When dogsled, hunting Greenlanders tell Ehrlich that they just want to give their children the experience of the hunt and that the children will decide in their turn whether they will live that way, I sense she is documenting the last of the dogsled hunts. In my First Nation, the elder who last used dogs is now too old, so four wheelers and snow mobiles are a way of life.
   
   What I lose patience with in Ehrlich's writing is most manifest in her book, "Questions of Heaven." She goes to China in search of Buddhism during the early stages of "getting rich is good." I don't quite understand her purpose except relating the difficulties of travel, telling anecdotes about some Chinese and their experiences from "let a thousand flowers bloom" to the cultural revolution, and her frustrated search. She goes to decayed monasteries which are just beginning to be opened to tourists. She is overwhelmed by the density, filth, poverty, pollution, etc. of China. Had she done some homework, all this wouldn't be such a revelation. In the Tibetan areas, she mentions the existence of Tibetan speaking westerners but does not explore who they are and why they are there even though she says she practices Tibetan Buddhism. The most interesting part of the book are her descriptions of the old man who was tortured during the cultural revolution and survived to resurrect traditional forms of music with a rag tag bunch of people from his valley. She doesn't explain why where he lives is more prosperous and happy than other places she visits.
   
   What I find difficult in many nature/travel writers she pours on in this book. Flowery language describing clouds, hills and landscape doesn't do much for me. I have spent much time out of doors. I could wax poetic about the blood red bark of an old manzanita in contrast to the peeling orange brown of a madrone, or the stages of a slime mold or a clown nudibranch grazing urchins. The silence of the redwoods, desiccated by summer dryness just before the coming rains, filled my yesterday's walk. No signs of animal life but a few dragonflies and a fleeting flock of bushtits. A few days earlier I had used "dead" to describe it to a walking companion, and she was a bit offended. A precontact California Indian would have known what I meant. Ehrlich evens makes mention of it during her recovery in California related in book four. But it takes more than poetic adjectives to convey a scene in nature. Reading lengthy passages of romantic descriptions of nature becomes tedious. I want to know why Ehrlich travels and writes, how the places she goes are assembled, the role landscape plays, their history, their challenges, the differences among their inhabitants, etc. If her book is the journey of an American Buddhist, there is very little critical relating to Buddhism except that either nobody she meets practices meditation, even chanting, or she doesn't inquire about it.
   
   The other two books, "Solace of Open Space," and "A Match to the Heart," fall somewhere in between. The former is good in the beginning, particularly in the descriptions of sheep herding, but becomes spotty after her marriage and life ranching. Ehrlich has really lived in Wyoming. She earned her spurs. But it would be great to know more about the strong, silent herders and ranchers: who are they; what is their inner landscape like; what are the tensions and rewards of working as they do? How does machinery effect their lives? During my brief stint as a cowboy, besides pushing cows between gigantic pastures, and sorting out the non-pregnant ones, I spent days building fences and hours in a four wheel drive pickup bouncing off-road. The chapters on the rodeo and Sun Dance give us far too little information on what these institutions are really like and what makes them tick. Ehrlich is also a tease when it comes to her personal life. We learn of the tragic death of her boyfriend which leads to her to stay in Wyoming, but the stuff of her one affair and her marriage are only hinted at. She is a beautiful woman in cowboy country. There has got to be more to it.
   
   In the last of the foursome, "A Match to the Heart," she is truck by lightening and relates her torturous recovery. It is a touching book. I have a lot of empathy with her struggle. Her descriptions of the deep humanity of her cardiologist are beautiful. But the book also leaves me a bit unsatisfied. The husband who doesn't seem to care, her trip to London, which seemed so inappropriate given her physical condition, the people with whom she connects but also seems distant from---I want to know more about her inner processes, her meditation practice. "A Match to the Heart" has aspects of a travel book, a chapter about being on a boat in the Alaska Panhandle without any sense of why she is there: a paying tourist; a guest of scientists or friends? When Ehrlich is on the way to recovery she lays out a map of the world pondering where next. It is hard to fathom, that she runs off from her Wyoming ranch to far distant travels and undertakes similar jaunts during her absences from Greenland. When she casually mentions these, the style of life implicit in so bouncing around the world seems inconsistent with the sense of place she is trying to convey. I am deeply attracted to what she has to say when she really inhabits the places in which she spends, as they say, quality time. I guess I want more of that from her.
   Charlie Fisher author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

3 comments about Nepal Handbook (2nd Edition).

1. This may be the best guidebook I've ever used-- I read it cover to cover during my trip, and feel like I ought to write Kerry Moran a fan letter. The advice and information in this book helped me to have an amazing and wonderful experience Nepal without always feeling like a clueless tourist. The descriptions of Nepali culture and customs are sensitively written and indespensible for a mystified first time visitor. The guides for trekking routes and towns are right on the mark but not overdetailed, so you get an accurate idea what to expect without being told exactly what to do. The Nepali vocabulary and grammar in the appendix were very handy and I really had fun trying to speak the language. This book does not have good maps, but I was able to get pretty good maps in Nepal.



2. This may be the best guide book I have ever used. I think I should write Kerry Moran a fan letter for helping me to have an amazing and wonderful time on my six-week trip to Nepal without always feeling like a clueless tourist. This guide is so well written and interesting that I read it cover to cover during the trip-- even the sections about places we weren't planning to go. The cultural descriptions are informative and sensitively written, but not unrealistically rose-colored. The guides to towns and trekking routes give you an accurate and practical idea of what to expect when you get there without being overdetailed or bossy about telling you what do. The Nepali vocabulary and grammar in the appendix really came in handy and Nepalis, even when they could speak English, seemed genuinely pleased that I was trying to speak Nepali. The maps are not especially good, but then even with maps you would still have to ask directions. This is a great guide for anyone whose itenerary is not set in stone and who wants to get some genuine insight into Nepali culture.



3. Being a traveller who usually swears by Lonely Planet guides, I have to admit that when it came down to taking one or the other, the Lonely Planet book stayed at home and this one made it into my backpack. It's just plain good. I will be sure to check out other Moon Guides in the future. Their series might soon be alongside my LP and Footprint Guide collections.

No comments about Fodor's Exploring China, 5th Edition (Exploring Guides).

No comments about Five Years in Siam from 1891 to 1896: Volume 2.

No comments about Marco Polo in China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan (Routledgecurzon Studies on the Early History of Asia).

No comments about China for Businesswomen: A Strategic Guide to Travel, Negotiating, and Cultural Differences.

No comments about The Treasures of China.

3 comments about West to East: A Young Girl's Journey to China.

1. Qian Gao's captivating book captures the turmoil within modern China -- from a child's perspective. Ranging from cities to ancient monuments, the young author interweaves respect for her heritage with the realities of her contemporary homeland. On another level, the reader also senses Gao's internal conflict as she reconciles her American upbringing with her Chinese heritage. All considered, West to East : A Young Girl's Journey to China is an insightful and captivating first-hand account of the world's largest nation.



2. This book is so stupid...it's obvious that a elementary school kid wrote this. Tries to be all philosophical and insightful and touching at the same time...the only thing it touched was my trash can after i got through the first 2 pages. Poor read...not even worthy for on-the-toilet perusal.

   P.S. I only put 1 star cuz I couldn't give it a 0.




3. I was hoping this would be a book that my daughter could read before we take her back to China to see her birth country in 10 or so years. This is a book is a travel journal of a young girl who was born & spent her first 5 years in China before moving to the United States. I was disappointed in the fact that most of the book is the young author's complaints about getting up in the morning, having visiting family that she doesn't remember and doesn't include her in many adult conversations, she loves to shop and her Nai- Nai (Grandmother) doesn't approve of her spending her money.
   
   After spending 14 days in China when we adopted our daughter, I have to admit it is soooo different than her in the US. Yes, it is crowded with people, bicycles and cars. Guangzhou was smoggy, but it wasn't unpleasent. Sqautty potties - their restrooms are quiet different than at home, we got use to the differences. I guess being an adult I see the world much differently than when I was younger. I was hoping that the author would see some of the differences and simularities that her birth country and current home had in common. Visiting China was an experiance of a lifetime. Both my husband and I fell in love with China and when our daughter is in her 'tween years we are taking her back to see her birth country!