Frommer's China

We are using this book to prepare for our trip to China in the fall. I checked out several China guidebooks from the library for a trial read, and this one seems to be the most complete and helpful. For example, it was the only one that had a good discussion of the pros and cons of using a tour company, and that recommended a list of companies, which have some expertise in working around the corrupt Chinese infrastructure. For trip planning purposes, I am also get a lot of value out of the Frommer's "star" ratings. For example, this is leading me to re-consider a Yangtze River cruise, that is still included in many conventional tours, despite the 2009 flooding project.

This book is heavy, however since the information is so valuable, I bring it to China and have a great time as the results of following the directions from this book. If you are going to China for more than 2 week and you didn't joining a tour, this is a must have book. However, it's pretty heavy to carry around so try to take notes and leave the book in your hotel room.

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.

I just returned from a solo trip through China and the Frommer's Guide was an excellent reference for both planning the trip before I left and for exploring the areas while I was there. The information provided in the beginning of the book ("Best of China" "Planning your trip..") helped me to focus in on what I wanted to see and how I could best do that, while the city sections provided a wealth of useful information on neighborhoods, orientation, and fast facts for the area. The bi-lingual listing of accomodations, attractions, etc. came in handy several times with taxi drivers and helpful citizens (I tore pages out of my book at each city visited to travel lightly. I especially enjoyed (and used) the highlighted sidebars (i.e. "A Great Hike on the Great Wall" "To Cruise or not to Cruise") as these messages were especially timely in light of what is happening now with China's rapid development. These sections, and most of the information in general, I found to be objective and true descriptions of what I encountered in China. The book, of course, was one of several tools (including internet postings, site reviews, transportation schedules, reading other books, learning a few Mandarin phrases, etc.) that helped to create a successful trip full of wonderful memories; however, after doing lots of note taking and reading from the other sources, it was an easy choice to make Frommer's the only book that made the cut as part of my carry-on. I was never disappointed and I'd recommended it to other travelers...Happy Journeys : )

My copy of this title has the Chinese in large, useful characters right next to the maps. Only if there's no map for a small town is the Chinese listed in the back, with the information for each town handily grouped together in alphabetical order.And like every other guide book, the map for a town is in the middle of the text talking about that town. So what's hard to find? The hotels and places to see are right next to the map in most cases. And since the towns only have one map, what's to guess about which maps things are on?I don't know about the Beijing and Shanghai guides, but of course there will be a lot of repeated information. The sights don't change, after all. The best place to eat is the same. Bus 47 still runs the same route. Of course lots of the information is the same. What do you expect?But what I do agree on is that this books is waaaaay more accurate than any other I looked at. I'm no fan of the usual schmaltzy Frommer's style, but this book really tells it like it is. It has the most extensive, detailed and accurate practical information of any guide I've seen, including the do-it-yourself budget guides.And while we're on the topic of Chinese, note that for every recommended restaurant there are recommended dishes, and the characters for them are given so you can just point to them to order. There's also a good long list of Chinese favourites you can buy anywhere.And while the major destinations are covered, this guide also scores with some remote rural destinations I've not seen covered anywhere else, including LP. Even if you don't want to go there, it's fascinating to read about the real China away from the regular tourist routes.You know, the first thing you want to check out when you buy a guide is the author biogs. Most of the writers on this guide speak Chinese and have lived in China. It really shows. All the LP and Rough guide readers were borrowing my copy all the time and making notes.