Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet China (China a Travel Survival Kit, 6th ed)

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

 

 

My friend and I have been in China two times: each for 3 weeks. LP was one of the guidebooks we used throughout. The first trip was to the South (up to Lijiang in Yunan) and the second was to the west (up to Turpan). Both trips planted in us rewarding experiences and beautiful memories. We wanted to go to Tibet, but we had no enough time (by bus, it already would have taken 3 days to Lhasa from Qinghai).

While reading some of the reviews on this page, IMHO, I think that if you'd like to learn more about history of China or language, you should buy history books or some sort. LP mainly serves as a "survival" guide. If you ever are in China, you will know how much "survival" means to you.

About inaccuacies in this book, you should keep in mind that China is still a changing country. Everthing was so unpredictable. But that's actually one of the things that makes China so fascinating to travel in. Nevertheless, I found that the info was as much accurate as it could be. For example, in Beijing, you can follow the direction in the book to get the cheapest money exchange rate (a laundry shop in an alley was actually there!).

If you're planning to spend time in China on your own, I highly recommend this book. You also need one or two good phrase books, if you don't know about Chinese. If you are also interested in historical part of China, also bring with you a good history book. But I doubt it, for the following reasons: 1) the experiences, sceneries, people, etc. will make you forget about history, and 2) they are all to heavy to carry. Imagine you are loading your backpack on your back walking and looking for a place to sleep, or on a bus with a map in one hand. I wouldn't carry a lot of books.

I have found so many intersting people travelling in deep China, most of them from European countries. They all carry this Bible with them.

If you're traveling in places like China, I advise you have a special home-made wallet that sits between the innest shirt and your skin, or inside the underwear. You should keep all your important documents and money in this wallet.

China is such a huge country that a thorough guide would fill 10 volumes. However, this Lonely Planet guide was extrememely sloppy and often wasted space on unnecessary anecdotes that were supposed to be funny, but provided no useful information- cultural or otherwise. In a country where there is very little English and everying is written in characters, precise directions are very important. This book would say things like "the only English-speaking travel agency is down the street." "The street" would often go on for miles! Would it have killed them to tell you whether it was to the left or the right? Also, we would have really appreciated it if the book had written more important information in Chinese characters. That way, when you are trying to get to the train station or the hospital or something, you could just point to the character instead of attempting to say something they will almost certainly not understand. There are very few choices, but there has to be a better guide book on China somewhere.

China is a difficult country to travel in, a fact which the new Lonely Planet China guide makes quite clear. Modern China is rarely exotic and at times quite frustrating for tourists, and the book does not mince words on this subject. However, if you are planning on undertaking some hard independent travel in the PRC, LP is up to the task and contains a lot of very practical information about budget lodging and transportation. LPs main shortcoming, as I see it, is that it concentrates too much on the cities and sites "worth seeing" and not enough on some of the beautiful counytside.

Travelling in China is not easy, to say the least. While my 3-week visit to China was an unforgettable experience, it was laden with all kinds of frustrations. This book makes things a bit easier on the traveler. Its accuracy is good, even though this edition is getting a bit dated -- due to this the information containted in the book was occasionally incorrect. But never fear -- a new edition should be out any day now.

One of the people that I was travelling with brought his copy of the Let's Go guide, and we felt that the books complemented each other nicely. However, I felt that the Lonely Planet guide was more detailed and just better overall. The advice is useful and usually fairly precise. However, I did not appreciate how opinionated and cynical the book was when presenting the history of the regions and the description of landmarks. When travelling in a country as different from the western world as China, it is important to keep an open mind -- something that this book has definitely not done.

I should note that the book was missing some much-wanted precision. Sometimes if a landmark was pinpointed on the map, the precise address for it was not given in the text. Some landmarks that appeared on the map were not even mentioned in the text.

All in all, this is a fairly good and useful book -- I would not describe it as spectacular. I am looking forward to seeing whether the new edition will be a significant improvement over this one.

It is unfortunate that most so-called "independent" travellers keep a book from the Lonely Planet series as their travel companion and they more or less blindly follow its advice as an instruction. Somehow one suspect that by now the publishers are aware of this fact and hence they would subject the content of the books to a more rigorous scrutiny. I am particularly appalled to see the Lonely Planet's China being used/misused as a reference book by many local Chinese. The phrase "good places go bad, bad places go bankrupt" gets a new dimension in the light of the active involvement of Lonely Planet in its actual realization. I think that the book on China, more than other books in this series, often shows a remarkable lack of judgement. Their advice for caution is sometimes so out of proportion that it only seems to encourage mistrust. It often expresses a blatant disrespect for the culture (including every-day life and contemporary values of ordinary people) and the regulations of the country. (The book issues "warnings" that the attraction is meant for chinese tourists, i.e. it may seem "tacky" for non-Chinese; it advises you to put in the music cassette you brought from home if you do not like the music they play on the bus (would this apply for Chinese coming to Europe, for instance?); it gives instructions on how to get a fake student ID to get cheaper tickets; the criterion for a "nice place" is the quality of the western food they serve or abundance of beer, etc., etc.). Apparently, the book targets people who are not particularly interested in China or Chinese culture, who preferably do better staying at home listening to their own music and eating their own food.

The two stars rating is because of the informations on the hotels and the maps you may need while not having time to search for better yourself. If most of the highly subjective opinions are omitted the book would not be so bulky; a fact of great concern for backpackers

Last summer I had the incredible oppurtunity to travel throughout China, from China's wild wild west Xinjian Province to Beijing, when I was only sixteen. Although, from reading others' review of the Lonely Planet Guide, it seems as if it is a horrible way to get around, it sincerely is not. I found that LP delivered a safe and secure sense of being while traveling throughout China. Although sometimes some information was incorrectly stated, such as prices, for the most part be found that it only was in our favor. If you are planning to travel to China and are looking forward to traveling without ties, the LP Guide will help you accomplish this. I think LP is a good starting off point and will get you where you need to go, but the real adventure and lure of China lies with what is not written in the pages of any book.

My friends would often rave about the quality of LP guides. So I decided to borrow a LP China guide. I was quite disgusted.

Being able to read/write Chinese and well acquainted with Chinese culture, I was quite outraged at the author's ignorant, insensitive, disrespectful and inaccurate depictions of the Chinese language, culture, and history.

Imagine if you picked up a guide book on France and the guide book suggested that the people of France *stubbornly* hangs on to speaking and writing French. That's the impression I get when reading this guide book on China. In fact, one part in the book even faults the country/people for using Chinese characters (i.e. its own written language! ) instead of switching to romanization.

The entire book shows an obvious lack of research and understanding of a country as complex as China.

Calling the Ming tombs an empty bank vault also shows an obvious lack of appreciation, understanding, and sensitivity towards Chinese history, architecture, and recent cultural turmoils.

It seemed like the only definition of "good", according to the author, is how much English is around and how much beer is served.

The only consolation for me is that I didn't actual pay money for this book.

China is a tough trip. No matter how you go, on your own, at tour, a grant whatever...its a tough trip. Some days are ultra rewarding and unforgettable and others can be like Dantes inferno. China is a must trip but it is a mixed bag. its so big and so vast. The Lonely Plant Guide is a must for both before and during. The beginning of the book does an incredible job preparing you for your trip and exposing you to Chinese culture. While there the maps and the listings are extremely helpful and are must reads. The guide is opinionated and most often accurate. I will always remember the description of the Ming tombs as an empty bank vault. They were 100% correct. Its a great book, and a valuable tool to get the most out of your trip. Read Orville Schells Mandate of Heaven and Mark Salzman Iron and Silk, watch To Live and get this book before going to China.

This book is only touted as 'the' book to have by those who have looked at no others, and have spent little time in China. Inconsistent in its presentation (opening times and prices may be included or may be just forgotten), often ill-informed and unhelpful in its descriptions of sites, only partially and superficially updated from the previous edition, this book not only fails to bring China to life, but also fails to do what LP is supposed to be good at, and tell you the cheapest ways to do things and the cheapest places to stay. Lazy updating has failed to find many newer, cheaper, and better value for money hotels and restaurants, and transportation information is too sketchy to be of much use. Not a few of us have already left our copies in the trash in China. Those wanting a single volume budget guide would be much better off buying Rough Guide, even though it's older, and those wanting some genuinely helpful and informed cultural information should buy Blue Guide (both available on this site).

I have always had a very good impression with Lonely Planet travel guidebooks. However, this guide really changes my mind. It is the worst LP guide book that I have ever read. It is full of inaccuracies and is sloppily-written. There are just too many mistakes littering around the book. Those sections of the book that deal with the Chinese history are particularly poorly-written, showing the authors' severe lack of research in the subject. Throughout the book, the authors also show a total lack of respect and understanding for the local population and culture. The 1-star rating I give is due to the large quantity of maps available in the book.