The Rough Guide to Beijing 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) [Paperback]

Simon Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2008 | Series: Rough Guide Travel Guides

This guide to Beijing brings the city’s highlights to life from the latest hip nightspots and fashionable eateries to the ancient splendours of the Forbidden City. Easier to use and more to the point than its main rivals, there are accounts of all the city''s attractions and reliable, practical information on how to get around, where to stay and where to find the best restaurants and bars. The guide also includes detailed accounts of excursions outside the city to historic towns and hikes along the Great Wall. Each district is covered by a thoroughly researched and fully indexed map

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A very intelligent and functional guide to this sprawling city. The nightlife section is the best and there are some very interesting dives to explore. . .A must-buy and one of the best guide out today. . .Highly recommended." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Simon Lewis is a travel writer and winner of the Bradt Travel Writing Award

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 3 edition (April 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843539071
• ISBN-13: 978-1843539070
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,096,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Travel > Asia > China > Beijing

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-Have if you go to Beijing, October 25, 2004

By 

Janice - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Beijing, Second Edition (Paperback)

This book was great--I don't know how we would have managed without it--it gives great, accurate information about places to go (not the nightclubs though), had great maps. We went to some of the most amazing restaurants that we would never have been able to find if not for the really detailed directions in the book (for example, this famous, but out-of-the-way roast duck restaurant hidden in the depths of the hutongs at Qianmen.) The maps were very useful, especially to show taxi drivers where you want to go, though you have to read the pinyin names to them since they can't read english. But definitely, you can't go wrong in Beijing with this book.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars already out of date, June 25, 2009

By 

Laura M - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Beijing 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

I've had great success with Rough Guides, and this seemed like a good bet given all the reviews here on Amazon. Unfortunately, I've been super disappointed. Sure, it's a challenge writing a guidebook for such a rapidly changing city; but this guide being pre-Olympics makes a HUGE difference. Don't let the 2008 date fool you.

The subway and bus information and maps are all wrong. Quite a few of the restaurants mentioned don't exist anymore, which I frequently discovered while hot and frustrated on Beijing's complicated streets. (Directions and maps are quite short on details.) Prices and information for major tourist sites (such as Forbidden City) are slightly off. The text even mentions Dunkin Donuts, which hasn't existed in China for five years or more. In addition, big swaths of the city aren't covered at all, notably the foreigner hot-spots around Chaoyang Park. The section on 798, the Arts District, is woefully short, just a paragraph long with no map or gallery suggestions.

Hopefully there's a better guide out there, because Beijing is the kind of massive city where you really need quality advice and maps and directions.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reliable, Up-to-Date, Far Better than Lonely Planet, July 4, 2004

By 

Steve Wilton (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Beijing, Second Edition (Paperback)

If you plan to go to Beijing and you don't speak Mandarin,
you *need* a good guide book. I consistently found this
to be accurate, and it gave good advice. I met other travelers
using the Lonely Planet, and they didn't find it nearly as
useful.