China

This book was deficient on maps. The front had a color-coded basic on provinces, which was hard to match - light green to medium green - chartreuse? A political or geological map would have been more useful. There were downtown maps for the major cities. Descriptions, photos and history etc was covered pretty well, however my main beef is that the photos depict bright, sunny vistas of tourist sites, WITHOUT THE THRONGS OF TOURISTS. I went there, the actual place is cram packed.

Before taking our daughter to China we purchased this book to give her some background on the history, culture, and development China as a nation. When we began the tour, she could answer many of the questions posed by the tour guide, who was most impressed with our daughter's knowledge. Two years later, we still find out daughter flipping through the pages, remembering her trip -- not through family photos -- but this book! It is a great read for older kids and even adults who just want a quick overview.

We chose China as our cross-cultural country to "visit" this year in conjunction with the up-coming Olympics. This was a great resource for me in preparing to teach about China, and with the lovely pictures, interesting to the students as well. I was especially pleased with the "free gifts"- the poster was a nice addition and I was able to use the CD pictures for writing promts for the students.

I bought this book because my daughters were born in China, and we have an interest in learning more. Since they are young, the colorful format and illustrations are great. And, there is a bonus CD of clip art, great for school reports or even scrapbooks. This book is not an in-depth study, however, but it does hit the highpoints very well.

DK Eyewitness books are always great, but this one is special because I have so many Chinese students this year. They are not always able to tell me in English about China and I don't speak Chinese, but photographs and the short paragraphs which accompany them are helpful. Many of my Chinese students want to tell me about the Chinese mummies, or the terra cotta soldiers and other sights they've seen in China. It is helpful to communicate about everyday life there too. Now if only Eyewitness books reached out to cover Korea, Turkey and the Pacific Islands!

The price of this book is a bargain! Filled with hundreds of full color photos on large glossy spreads. Lots of Information in here about modern China...the country, nature, animals, food, money, art, families, language, government, etc. There is a big 4-color poster in the back of the book and a clip art CD included.