Customer Reviews

Fodor's China, 6th Edition (Travel Guide)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book. It offers historical perspective and complete coverage. it has useful guides to the areas I was interested in, and is very readable and user friendly. A must for travel in China.

This is packed with information you will likely need in China. While it does not have the variety of pictures other guide books have, it is full of the detail one needs in a country as diverse as China. I especially like the "Foder's Choice" selections which have helped us determine what to see and where to stay. A good example is where to see the Great Wall. Without Foder's Choice, it would seem all Great Wall sites are the same when, in fact, some are better for the tourist than others.

We bought this guide for a family vacation in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. The information is good and pretty thorough - BUT - if you actually want to find anything in the book, or on a map, or find a map, or find a restaurant or location referred to on one of the maps, then Good Luck. Because the layout of this book is absolutely dreadful. I'll give you an example: You're in Hong Kong and have heard the museum of teaware is good, so you want to see where it is on the map. Except you can't find the map because it's hidden amongst all the other HK information on a random page. You find the map and see that it's #8 on the key - so you try to find it in the "attractions" section - except it doesn't come after 7 and before 9, because attractions 7 and 9 are in a different area of the city and therefore on a different page in the book - not that the map even showed the city areas in the first place. So you eventually find the review, decide to go and decide to figure a restaurant to eat at while you're there. So - back to the map - except that's the attractions map, not the restaurant map - that's another map on another page, with another key, with more not-in-sequence numbers. For Kowloon it's worse. There are 2 different maps, to different scales, both with a random assortment of markets, sights and museums. It's potluck as to whether you'll ever actually find what you're looking for.
I don't care how good the information is - if you can't find it, it's useless. For Beijing and Shanghai the Moon guide was much better - and had all the maps (by area), everything on them, color coded at the back of the book. Now that's sensible.

I borrowed this from the library and immediately decided against buying it for my travel to China. We spent 2.5 weeks in Yunnan and Sichuan. I was a bit disappointed by the coverage of these 2 provinces, especially Yunnan. Tiger Leaping Gorge, a must in this area, barely got a paragraph while Shangri-La was barely even mentioned. The written Chinese characters for some of the places were placed at the end of chapters, which would have caused too much flipping around while trying to ask people in China questions. There were no Chinese characters for the hotels or restaurants listed, which is a must for independent travelers trying to get directions somewhere. Get the Lonely Planet "Southwest China" edition if you are concentrating in these regions.

I love Fodor's guides because they help one distinguish the good from the great and offer interesting perspectives and commentaries. The commentaries in this edition are okay, rather than good. Maybe the next edition will get back on track.

Have tried several guide books for my trips to China each year. This is at the bottom of my list. Lonely Planet books beat them ten to one. We backpack across China for three weeks each year on our own...get the best of the best...Lonely Planet