Lonely Planet China 15

Having just returned from a trip in China with the Lonely Planet book as my only guide, I am a bit mystified by the generally negative reviews and complaints about minor points. Is this book perfect? Of course not. Any attempt to fit all of a country (especially one as large as China) into one book will inevitably fall short. Yet, LP packs more info into 1000 pages than most other tour books combined. Another complaint is that it is not necessarily up-to-date. Of course it isn't. Anything put in print about a country changing as fast as China is out of date the moment it hits the bookstands. It should be a given that an attraction with an entrance fee of Y50 today will likely be Y100 tomorrow. Ask yourself though: does it really matter? Are you really going to skip the Forbidden City because the entrance fee is Y20 higher than published? No, of course not. The LP has much to recommend it. Here are the highlights: -excellent maps with accurate scale and bilingual markers -good breadth without sacrificing too much depth -great for people who want to leave the tour groups and package tours behind (it's much cheaper to go solo!) -a good selection of restaurants and hotels in different price ranges -good descriptions of main attractions and how to get to them -a pretty good language section with some of the survival words and phrases you will need Above all, I can give this tour book no greater compliment than the following sentiment: if you are traveling to China and bring only one book, THIS IS THE ONE. Do not be put off by the negative reviews that harp on minor and often irrelevant points. My advice is the same for anyone who travels to China or any other country: do your homework before going. The internet is a great start, as are books that might give a better overview of issues such as language, culture, politics, and other fields that can only receive cursory treatment in a travel book already bursting at the seams of its 1000 pages. But, the point is that when you're on the ground in China, this is the book that you want as your traveling companion. That's why it gets 5 stars in my book!

I bougth this book following the advice of a friend. He travelled to China few years ago, he doesn't speak chinese and he survived almost five months visiting almost all China and Tibet, with just this book and a lonely planet phrase book. With this book he got greats and cheap hotels in the biggest cities of China.- I've been reading this book to prepare my trip to China next January, and this book is an excelent guide. You can find detailed information about optimal routes, hotels, attractions, how you get there, how can you save money, what you must go in each city (and includes almost every little town in China), where can you find information in english or other languages,where is nice to walk, and a lot more. Has something extremely useful, every place has the name in English and Chinese (Pinyin and symbols). Another friend who visited China told me that the most important thing in you want to use a taxi in China. There are 2 points that could be improved. First: A lot of information, but just a few pictures. Second: Is heavy, not too much, but heavy enough to hated it after a few days in your backpack in China. Another friend leaved it China after a few days. Well, i will improve this review after use this book in China. Sorry about my english skills , i just speak spanish and a little bit of chinese. From the South of the world Carolina

I used this book when traveling alone in China twice. The cultural descriptions of China's many and diverse regions were helpful, accurate and hardly suffused with glamor. More importantly, the nuts and bolts travel information such as hotels, railroads, airlines, regulations, etc. was right on the mark. A word of warning, if you're spending time in Kunming, some of the streets and restaurants referenced in this book no longer exist because of the massive construction effort there.

My friend and I have been in China two times: each for 3 weeks. LP was one of the guidebooks we used throughout. The first trip was to the South (up to Lijiang in Yunan) and the second was to the west (up to Turpan). Both trips planted in us rewarding experiences and beautiful memories. We wanted to go to Tibet, but we had no enough time (by bus, it already would have taken 3 days to Lhasa from Qinghai).While reading some of the reviews on this page, IMHO, I think that if you'd like to learn more about history of China or language, you should buy history books or some sort. LP mainly serves as a "survival" guide. If you ever are in China, you will know how much "survival" means to you.About inaccuacies in this book, you should keep in mind that China is still a changing country. Everthing was so unpredictable. But that's actually one of the things that makes China so fascinating to travel in. Nevertheless, I found that the info was as much accurate as it could be. For example, in Beijing, you can follow the direction in the book to get the cheapest money exchange rate (a laundry shop in an alley was actually there!).If you're planning to spend time in China on your own, I highly recommend this book. You also need one or two good phrase books, if you don't know about Chinese. If you are also interested in historical part of China, also bring with you a good history book. But I doubt it, for the following reasons: 1) the experiences, sceneries, people, etc. will make you forget about history, and 2) they are all to heavy to carry. Imagine you are loading your backpack on your back walking and looking for a place to sleep, or on a bus with a map in one hand. I wouldn't carry a lot of books.I have found so many intersting people travelling in deep China, most of them from European countries. They all carry this Bible with them.If you're traveling in places like China, I advise you have a special home-made wallet that sits between the innest shirt and your skin, or inside the underwear. You should keep all your important documents and money in this wallet.

Last summer I had the incredible oppurtunity to travel throughout China, from China's wild wild west Xinjian Province to Beijing, when I was only sixteen. Although, from reading others' review of the Lonely Planet Guide, it seems as if it is a horrible way to get around, it sincerely is not. I found that LP delivered a safe and secure sense of being while traveling throughout China. Although sometimes some information was incorrectly stated, such as prices, for the most part be found that it only was in our favor. If you are planning to travel to China and are looking forward to traveling without ties, the LP Guide will help you accomplish this. I think LP is a good starting off point and will get you where you need to go, but the real adventure and lure of China lies with what is not written in the pages of any book.