Customer Reviews

Knopf MapGuide: Shanghai

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Chinese cities are hard to get a handle on because they're so large, so having something set up by neighborhood really helps. This was one of several guidebooks/maps I took to China and used it a lot - without it, I was lost as to where things were relative to each other. The fact that it listed key attractions in neighborhoods was very useful. Chinese cities are WAY too large for there to be detailed maps. And the small size of this mapguide is handy.

I'm a big fan of Access city guides, which are set up by neighborhood. This was the closest I could find for China.

The compact layout of all Knopf pocket guides is convenient and attractive. The maps are easy to follow except that small interesting street names are often omitted. This edition on Shanghai is desperately needing an update. I am now living in Shanghai for 2 months now. My initial exploration of this megacity using this guide met with many frustrations. This is because so many sites listed on the outdated guide (2006 edition) have already been demolished in the constant reconstruction of this megacity. For instance, a whole street of Chinese contemporary art galleries on DongDaming Lu in the Hangkou district (as indicated by the outdated guide) have gone. They are replaced by a whole street of glitzy glass office buildings for corporates. The restaurant recommendations that I tried have been good, but again, other recommended sites need to be updated. Knopf really needs to pay attention to this if they want to continue to profit on this little attractive and useful guide for the tourists.

It's a good map but not great.....doesn't provide all the details of street names, etc. It does have some good travel information