Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Beijing Encounter

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The latest edition of LP Beijing follows the new formatting that LP introduced in 2004 for its travel guides. There are inserts of colour photography for those of you so inclined. The Language section is OK, and chinese is used on the maps to assist you when dealing with taxi/bus drivers.

Generally speaking, the LP Beijing City Guide will do the job for short term visitors to the city, and these short term visitors are the target audience for these books. Those staying long term as ESL teachers or in other capacities will find it lacking after a while, but there is only so much you can squeeze into these books anyway.

Just a note to those planning on visiting the city in the next few months. A lot of the major sights, such as the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, are under restoration as part of the city's preparation for the 2008 Olympics (see the Olympic countdown clock outside the main entrance of the Museum of Chinese History), with scaffolding and workmen all over the show. You can still get into these places, but may not be able to see all the sights mentioned in the guidebook. But be sure to get a photo of the Starbucks which is slap bang in the middle of this historic city. Commercialism at its finest...

I'm normally a devoted LP customer, but I have to admit to making an impulse decision to purchase the Insight City Guide to Beijing. I found the Insight guide to be almost as good, particularly where maps are concerned. The Insight guide was also cheaper than the LP book, although I think the LP listed more activities. For me though, Lonely Planet still sets the standard for Travel Guides.

I found this travel guide to Beijing to be very useful and nicely put together. Lonely planet always has nice graphics and pictures. The information was short and sweet. There was enough information to be useful, but not so much that it was overkill.

As has been pointed out, the chinese characters are included which is very helpful. Also, it is true that with development being what it is in China it is impossible to write a guide that is totally up to date. Clearly, being published going on 2 years ago, this book could use an update.

All that being said, this is the best guidebook to Beijing that I have seen out there. That is why I am giving it 4 stars. Happy Travels!

The information is good but there are no Chinese characters of locations/names to show to taxi drivers. The pronunciations are just too difficult for some one not adept at languages or who has not studied some Chinese. I have taken over a dozen trips to China and find books with Chinese characters far more useful.

Since gaining WTO membership and winning the bid to host the 2008 Olympics two years ago, China has been doing a great deal of house cleaning in its major cities. Beijing in particular is currently undergoing an incredible amount of construction. Ancient neighborhoods and alleyways are being torn town and replaced by mammoth skyscrapers at an incredible rate. Almost anywhere you go in the city you will encounter cranes towering above scaffolding or as yet undeveloped land. New subway lines and major roads are being added at an incredible rate.

That being the case, it is impossible to write a 5 star guidebook for the city. The lonely Planet's guidebook does a pretty good job of keeping on top of things, but is unfortunately out of date from the day it hits the presses.

Since I was on a guided tour, I used the book mainly to familiarize myself with the various sights and sounds. I agree with other reviewers who mentioned that some areas of the book are being outdated by the fast development of Beijing. Overall, the book is well put together and would have been useful if I had done more on my own. Would not hesitate to pick up a revised edition on my next trip to Beijing.

I bought this book for the Olympics and was disappointed. It didn't have the full subway maps updated and the Olympics section was sparse. It needs an update as Beijing is changing rapidly

Compared to the other travel guides (I have them all - Frommer's, Time Out, Fodors, HoodHot), this one has good maps, conveniently located in the back of the book (you'll need em! and quick! to try and figure out how to tell the driver where you want to go) and a great index where you can look up venues that you wanted to go to etc. Great for finding good places to go in Beijing, and better when I used it with my iPhone (downloaded the HoodHot Beijing Taxi Guide app from the app store, which translates English venue names to Chinese and gives Chinese addresses), so I didn't have to bring the clunky book around!

I bought the 2010 edition for the 3-4 extra days I had in Beijing following a conference in May 2011. It was extremely disappointing and outdated for the northwestern and eastern half of the city, where I spent most my time. Ultimately, the book also wasted a good third of my trip. Having lived in Beijing a few months about 4 years ago, I was interested less in the major sites (which don't change much) and more in the suggested eating and novelty shopping suggestions, and also as a good reminder of the city's layout. I went to three suggested places -- only to find the first place had completely moved and was no longer where the Lonely Planet said it was; the second place was not open for lunch as stated in the book; and the third, so small and so unspecial a shop that I really was at a loss to understand why it was worthy of review. (I was looking for homemade toys for the kids at home -- the book identified this place as the place to go). The place was also off the beaten track so it was NOT easy to get to. Talk about a waste of time.

I would also say that the Haidian section of the book (I lived in Haidian at the time) was REALLY outdated. In fact, it was outdated even for the time I was there four years ago. I suspect that the author has not spent any time in the Haidian district at all.

The only thing I liked about the book is that it is organized by district, making it very easy logistically to figure out where to go next (that is, if the book were updated). Again, I'm really disappointed in this book. Lonely Planet authors should do the due diligence and make sure their info is current AND they should make the effort to at least go to the different parts of town.

Beijing Encounter was a great travel guide if you're only planning on staying in Beijing for a week. All the must-see sites are listed, as well as a few lesser-known, but just as wonderful sites. Also, the book was organized beautifully- color coded (by sights, shopping, eating, entertainment, etc) and separated by district. In fact, I think this was the most helpful aspect of the guide.
One downside though, is the entire nature of the fast-paced, ever expanding Beijing. Maps are definitely not as dead-center accurate as they can be, due to the constant construction. Also, none of the maps have Chinese on them, making them a little difficult to share with Chinese locals if you get lost.

However, this is still a very good guide; definitely a must-pack if you plan on exploring Beijing.

Though I found the layout of this Lonely Planet book odd (even the Index is divided by topics), its content proved to be accurate. If you visit Beijing, expect very few people to speak even limited English.