The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

British born author Simon Winchester lived in Hong Kong before setting off on a journey up the Chang Jiang or Yangtze River as it is most often referred to in the West. In The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze and Back in Chinese Time, he chronicles his adventures across China along the 3,964-mile River. Employing nearly every mode of transportation--including boat, train, jeep and shoe leather--Winchester recalls his passionate exploration of the countryside, while providing important and engaging historical information. His recollections of the Chinese people are often less complimentary, as he exudes an air of disgust at the country's apparent disregard for pollution, its awkward modern architecture and decaying historical monuments. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"The delicious strangeness of China," as Winchester puts it, is as much the subject of this absorbing account of a personal journey as is the Yangtze River, the third-longest in the world and the entry to China's heartlands. Along its banks, some of the most important events in the country's history have played out, and the river occupies a singular place in the national psyche. In 1994, Winchester followed its course from the East China Sea to Tibet by boat, car, train, plane, bus and foot; but this is more than an ordinary account of a traveler's pilgrimage, although it is a must for any visitor to China. Wryly humorous, gently skeptical, immensely knowledgeable as he wends his way along the 3900 miles of the great river, Winchester provides an irresistible feast of detail about the character of the river itself, the landscape, the cities, villages and people along its banks. Most notably there is Shanghai, once "the most sinful city in the world," now an economic powerhouse rivaling Hong Kong; Wuhan, where the 1910 revolution began that brought Dr. Sun Yat Sen to power and where Mao Ze Dong, at 70, chose to make his famous swim; the Three Gorges, where a great, controversial dam to rival Aswan is being built; and Chongquin, once Chiang Kai-shek's smoggy and furnace-hot capital. Finally, Winchester made his way to the great river's source 15,000 feet high in the mountains of Tibet. A journalist who has written extensively about Asia (Pacific Rising; The Sun Never Sets) and spent nine years in Hong Kong making frequent visits inland, Winchester is comfortable with the country's long, complex history and politics, and he writes about them with an easy grace that defies the usual picture of China as an enigma wrapped in a conundrum.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; First Owl Book Edition edition (October 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805055088
• ISBN-13: 978-0805055085
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,092,541 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, flawed execution, September 3, 2002

By A Customer

Winchester's idea to travel "backwards" through time by following the Yangtze to its origin could have led to a very compelling tale. Unfortunately, Winchester made very little effort to set his journey apart from the way most Western tourists travel. Soft-seat trains and boats maintain a significant separation between the author and his subjects. Consequently, aside from some well-researched historical stories, there isn't much insight into the Yangtze region or its people.

Winchester's condescending tone also reinforces the outsider's perspective of the book. The further one gets into the book, the more it becomes obvious Winchester views Western culture as inherently superior to Chinese culture. This is a major flaw in the book because it prevents Winchester from observing and describing what is going on around him effectively, and perhaps more importantly, from being influenced and changed by his travels.

Overall, the book has a few interesting passages but the author's cultural biases reduce most of it to what is essentially a tourist's impressions of a vacation. Two books that touch on the Yangtze region with much greater insight are Red Dust (Ma Jian) and River Town (Peter Hessler). I recommend reading either book before picking up Winchester's book.

112 of 136 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I'm actually quite annoyed by this book..., March 10, 2003

By	Matthew M. Yau "Voracious reader" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The back cover of the book tells of Simon Winchester's reverse-the-Yangtze boat travel from Shanghai back to its origin up in the western mountains. That sounds quite appealing to me as I have never traveled through the Three Gorges (not to mention that upon completion of the great dam near Xilin Gorge the river will raise at feet 400 feet and inundate thousands of pagodas). I have decided that the book was an instant disappointment after finished reading the first few chapters. Two things about this book that REALLY bother me:

1)Winchester, though researched all these interesting (historical) stories, does not say much about lives along the Yangtze River. He would spend pages and pages talking and reflecting on his memories as he sails through the river sceneries. You will ask: what about the Chinese people living along the river? How are their lives? What about his interactions with the locals? He omits all these as if they simply don't exist or he is just sailing along some remote uninhabited towns.

2)Over and over again Winchester implies his superiority (or superiority of the Western culture) over the Chinese. What on earth is this all about? But thanks to this book so I know what a REALLY good travel narrative/memoir is all about. Peter Hessler's "River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze River" is a completely opposite account to Winchester's in terms of both contents and attitude. Peter interacted and spent time to get to know the locals without judgmentally commenting on their disparaging lifestyles.

I simply don't like and don't agree with this book. Neither do I like the writing style nor the stories it has to offer. The narrative is repetitious and cliched. Not recommended. 2.2 stars.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating tale of the Yangzi River, June 15, 2000

By	Mr Howard Follas (Auckland, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

For the discerning Western reader with an interest in all things Chinese, Simon Winchester's "The River at the Center of the World" makes for an enthralling read.

His arduous journey from the mouth of the Yangzi River to its source high in the Tibetan Plateau, is far more than merely a commentary of his travels. Entwined amongst his own colourful experiences, Mr Winchester captures a fascinating analysis of the river's history.

Indeed the Yangzi has a history worthy of telling in a book of this type. Charting a course that initially wanders from the urban delights of Shanghai near the Pacific coast then along the meandering, lower reaches of the Yangzi, the reader is taken through hundreds of years of Chinese history. The author touches on elements as diverse as the Opium Wars, the turbulent history of the tea trade, the Yangzi High Dam and Emperor Da-Yu - who is attributed with rerouting the river and keeping its vast waters within China. There is space even for the origins of Asian-man to be pondered upon.

Occasionally the author takes the reader on self-indulging investigative expeditions, such as seeking the anchor reportedly captured by communist forces in 1949 from the stricken warship HMS Amethyst at Zhenjiang. Upon finding it he declares it more likely to have come from a river junk. These expeditions are interesting nonetheless and aid his overall goal of depicting the Yangzi as a fascinating place both in present and past tenses.

Simon Winchester has certainly done his research. He tells of otherwise obscure river-navigators, chart-makers and naturalists who made their marks in respective fields along the river's twists and turns in times long past

Two thirds of the book is allocated to the more sedate stretch of water, between Shanghai and Wuhan, perhaps because this is where the far greater proportion of recent history lies. Other experiences though, like the Three Gorges, Tiger Leaping Gorge and the trip along forbidden roads in Tibet, are also allocated their due space.

The end product, though is one that vividly colours the mind with written-images of a river that has formed the very heart of the world's most populated nation -continuing to very much dominate day to day life today. It is a narrative of a journey that inspires the arm-chair reader to do likewise.

Indeed, I myself started reading Simon Winchester's book in far-off New Zealand, finishing it a few weeks later while visiting China - on the river itself aboard a ferry boat from Shanghai bound for Wuhan.

Very inspirational stuff indeed Mr Winchester.