Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet South-West China (1st ed)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

A couple of the reviews below complain that the coverage of South-West China was just lifted from Lonely Planet's China guide and this is really misleading. To prove a point, the following destinations are covered only in the SW China book and are not covered at all in the China guide:

YUNNAN - grottoes of Shibaoshan, stone city of Baoshan, Weixi county, Tiger Leaping Gorge trek map, Birang Gorge, Dondrupling monastery, Cizhong Catholic Church, the Nujiang Valley, Menglian, Chengjiang, Jiangchuan, architecture of Jianshui, Gejiu, terraces of Yuanyuang, Luxi Caves
SICHUAN - dinosaurs of Zigong, Yibin, Bamboo Sea, Bo Hanging Coffins, Yi people of Xichang and the Cool Mountains, Tibetan area of Muli, Tibetan monasteries around Tagong and Ganzi, Dzogchen Monastery, Pelpung, Dzongsar and Kathok monasteries around Derge, trekking around Derge, Daocheng and Yading Nature Reserve, Woolong Nature Reserve, Barkham, Wenchuan, Langmusi, Aba
GUIZHOU - Xingren, Miao towns of Leishan, Taijiang, Fanpai, Shidong, Huangping, Shibing, Zhenyuan, Tongren, Fanjing Mt nature Reserve, the Dong settlements of Ronjiang, Congjiang and Zhaoxing, waterfalls and caves of Chishui,
Guangxi - Nanning, Beihai, Chongzuo, Detian Waterfall on the Vietnam border, Jingxi, Baise, Guiping

The bottom line is that if you are planning a trip around China and/or only have a week or two in SW China, then take LP's China. But if you want to get off the beaten track, have more time to explore SW China and/or have an interest in Tibetan monasteries, hilltribe villages and minority nationalities in general, then SW China is DEFINITELY the guide to take.

This edition will take the traveler beyond the main sites detailed in the China 2000 Lonely Planet. Ignore the other two reviews as they criticize the earlier edition for being out of date. This edition will be very helpful for those exploring the diverse regions of Yunnan and beyond in the Southwest of China.

The negative comments re the first edition are justified, but for this much better second edition clearly a lot of work has gone into improving the Yunnan section (the bit I can comment on).

This book is outdated, but the information is still useful and the writing is solid. Combined with Let's Go China and two phrasebooks we felt well equipped. It would be great if this book would be updated though, for there is so much to explore in Yunnan alone. We spent much of our five weeks in this region and still have lots left to see.

Published in 1998, Lonely Planet South-West China is essentially the sections for Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan from the previous edition of Lonely Planet China (6th Edition), which has been out of print for a while. China is a country that is changing rapidly as a result of these changes the book contains a lot of inaccuracies. For instance, the Kunming-Dali and Kunming-Lijiang travel times mentioned in the book have been cut in half because a highway has been built since publication and has been operational for a couple of years!

This is not a good book to use for planning your trip. The next edition of Lonely Planet South-West China is due out sometime in 2002. Till then you are much better off using Lonely Planet China (7th Edition) that was published in October 2000.

I had been eagerly awaiting the 2002 edition of this guidebook to South West China to help me plan my upcoming trip throughout Sichuan and I was very disappointed. All it did was lift the section on Schuan out of the Lonely Planet "China" guidebook and reprint it. Most of the smaller towns and attractions that I was looking for are not even included. If you have any other decent guidebook of China already, this will be a waste of money.