Customer Reviews

Insider's Guide to Beijing 2008

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finally got my copy from the friendly Friendship Store on Changan Jie. My wife (a Beijinger) and I own a real estate service for expatriates in Beijing and always have a copy on hand, as do all our consultants, Chinese and foreign. The depth and accuracy of information is impressive. Unlike many guides, little or none of the content is re-hashed from previous years. Both entertaining and informative, it's an essential reference for native Beijingers, expatriates and students alike. Tourists wanting an insight into contemporary Beijing might consider it too as it's filled with anecdotes. However, sparse coverage of historical aspects of the city.

This book navigated us through the city for two weeks, spot on. We saw the historic sights and emerging China, a lot of if from a local angle. And the restaurants! Great book.

A great book, with tons of "insider" information that you won't find in other travel guides. And the many "color pieces" that are scattered throughout the book are quite wonderful.

On the other hand, it is really designed for people who are spending signficant amounts of time in Beijing. There is lots of assumed knowledge that the casual traveler doesn't necessarily have.

For example, very little information is given about where all the listed stores/restaurants/sites/etc. are actually located beyond their address. The assumption is that you'll have a detailed map of the city, or some other method, for figuring out the general area of Beijing where this address is located.

Also, would be very useful if they included even an abbreviated phrase book.

Would definitely recommend as one of a number of resources for travelers, but would caution folks against using it as their sole guide book in Beijing.

We took this with us for a 9 day trip to Beijing and it had more information, and more information that no one else publishes, than all the other guidebooks put together. The sassy essays scattered throughout are fun as well as informative, and the listings are amazingly complete and with the kind of details you want when you are figuring out how to choose from among similar sounding shops or restaurants or galleries. It is too involved to be your only guidebook, you'll want something less intense to give you more of an overview of Beijing, but it is perfect for drilling down into something that intrigues you.

How else are you going to tell the cabbie that you want to go to the Kerry Center Hotel? I speak Mandarin, but didn't know the Chinese names, not to mention the Chinese addresses to the restaurants, bars, and touristy things that I wanted to get to! Unless you have an iPhone (and can use the hoodhot Beijing taxi guide app), this is essential for navigating Beijing!

I've been living in Beijing for almost ten years. My wife and I live by this book, and our visitors from abroad use this as their comprehensive reference for their Beijing visits as well. Great book for expats and tourists alike!

For someone like me who has spent a few days at a time in Beijing but visit there two or three times a year this is a great find. Lots more detail than the average travel guide with a few key features... great map detail; the inclusion of Chinese characters for site names and locations -- so you can just pop into a cab, show it to the driver, and get there; and interesting alternatives to the usual and customary tourist sites -- although they are also exhaustively covered. I'm particularly taken with the article on galleries showing contemporary art.

The book includes a series of articles that describe the experience of being at many of the destinations. I found these articles to be engaging and, for the sites that I had visited, accurate and insightful. Updated in 2008 (and, apparently, annually), this is a "don't leave home without it" if you are in control of your own time in Beijing.

-- Bill Tysseling

This is a useful guide overall in it's scope.

That being said.. It could do without the constant smartass "tongue in cheek" tone that pervades Asian expat publications though, as the writers come off as patronizing at times. Some of the page long articles are rather useless diatribes.