Beijing and Shanghai (Eyewitness Travel Guides) [Paperback]

DK Publishing (Author), Peter Neville (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2009

These two fascinating cities reflect different aspects of China - Beijing is the traditional capital, the seat of political power and home to the ancient monuments of Imperial China; Shanghai is both a financial powerhouse and a city at the cutting edge of fashion with an interesting modern history. This DK Eyewitness Travel Guide provides in-depth coverage of these cities, including Beijing's Great Wall and Forbidden City, Shanghai's Bund and the French Concession, as well as the water towns of Suzhou and Hangzhou, graced with serene and timeless gardens and lakes. Explore China's cultural heritage through richly illustrated features - on everything from Beijing Opera to Confucianism, Chinese Gardens and the Cultural Revolution. Illustrated food features highlight the differing regional cuisines, and resident China experts have provided detailed listings of the best places to stay and eat. Specially devised walking tours take you easily to the heart of these bustling, enigmatic and ultimately bewitching cities.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: DK Travel (October 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756660920
• ISBN-13: 978-0756660925
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #322,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Travel > Asia > China > Beijing
  • #18 in Books > Travel > Asia > China > Shanghai

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great breadth and depth, May 7, 2007

By 

R. Ploehn "South Beach Guy" (Miami Beach, FLA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beijing and Shanghai (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Paperback)

As a repeat visitor, I can tell you this guide is a great outline of the major sites, map locations, and profuse illustrations and photos. The street maps are thorough, too. It is thinner and lighter than the complete DK China Guide, so it travels with you much more easily. As all Eyewitness Guides, this one is brief when reviewing hotels and restaurants, so Frommers, Fodors and others can give you those.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor maps, no Chinese characters, April 18, 2010

By 

C. Nelson "nelson1820" (San Diego) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beijing and Shanghai (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Paperback)

Except on very major roads, none of the street signs in Beijing are written in English. The book doesn't have any Chinese characters listed for the streets or business names. This means you can't match the Chinese characters on your own, or point to them when asking someone else. Unless you can perfectly pronounce the English versions of Chinese names and ask someone on the street (extremely hard, especially when given no accent marks on the english versions), this book is next to useless. Maybe this wouldn't bother you if you were only going to the main sites, but the book doesn't even show the reviewed businesses (hotels, restaurants, shops) on the maps, only the rough square they are in! Add in the fact that many city facts are just plain wrong (ignore their description of the subway for example, it is all electronic), and I honestly don't understand why there are so many great reviews regarding the maps & locations for this book. Unless you just want to read it for the pictures, stay away.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good for people going on packaged tours, January 21, 2010

By 

l2 (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beijing and Shanghai (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Paperback)

Like all DK books, this one is very glossy and colorful. If you're going on a packaged tour of these cities, this is a fine book to have. It has nice photos and maps of the major tourist attractions, as well as some historical information and suggested walking tours. On the other hand, if you're going to be visiting these cities for an extended period, you will probably exhaust the information in this slim book pretty quickly.

If you're a backpacker or independent tourist, this book will have limited value to you as there are only a handful of hotel and restaurant suggestions. The DK books are published much less frequently than other guidebooks, so I suppose extensive listings (like you find in annually updated guidebooks) would be obsolete a couple of years later.

This book does have a 2009 publication date and the Beijing subway map does include the new routes that were added for the 2008 Olympics.