The Rough Guide to Beijing, Second Edition (Paperback)

by Simon Lewis (Author) "Beijing is China at its most dynamic, a vivid metropolis spiked with high-rises, proud owner of over a hundred flyovers (some even commemorated on stamps),..." (more)
Key Phrases: silk market, drum tower, few yuan, Forbidden City, Jianguomenwai Dajie, Hong Kong (more...)

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."

Product Description
This guide to historic city of Beijing brings its highlights to life from the latest hip nightspots to the Forbidden City. 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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 2 Sub edition (February 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843532425
• ISBN-13: 978-1843532422
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #818,167 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

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

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A VERY GOOD , true 'pocket size' compact guide., June 5, 2001

By	Allan M. Gathercoal "fdoamerica" (Norcross, GA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Beijing 1 (Rough Guide Mini Guides) (Audio Cassette)

Straight away, you're going to love the 'deck of cards’ size of this wonderful guide. It slips in your hip pocket and leaves your hands free to part the pressing masses of Beijing. If you’re a people person, you will love China (1.3 Billion and rising).

Lewis has condensed, in a few hundred pages, 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 in Beijing. The color maps are great and easy to use. Want to find a restaurant that Simon Lewis recommends? Go to map 7, cross reference C,8. Besides these color maps at the back of the guide, the b&w map of the Hidden City is very good, showing the palaces, buildings and special locations at the site. The restaurants and accommodations that I used on my visit to Beijing were 'spot on'.

Simon Lewis' unique and 'off the beaten tracks' vignettes are a joy to read. Topics include, Feng Shui, Beijing online and the Trans-Siberian Train and Dissent in Tian'anmen Square, just a few of the vignettes. On the other hand, very little information is given to help the reader understand the culture and history of Beijing.

Though Simon Lewis includes a very informative directory of important offices, i.e., airlines, banks, embassies, hospitals etc., he only gives names, addresses and directions in English, not Chinese characters, so they are basically useless for taxi drivers and just about everybody else. But he does have Chinese characters for all accomodations and resturants.

Simon Lewis focuses on the budget minded when it comes to recommending accommodation and restaurants, "Luxury hotels in Beijing are legion (and very pricy), but, you can still avail yourself of their lavish facilities, such as the lobby toilets and pick up free copies of the 'China Daily'.

A peeve that I have about Rough Guides is their use of a number system to quote the price range of a hotel, i.e., the Friendship Hotel costs a '6', then you have to flip back to the numeric legion to find out that 6 = 600 to 800 yuans, which you then divide by the current rate of exchange. As other guides demonstrate, there are betters ways to help your reader gage approximate cost.

A weakness of many guides, including this one, is the absence of a hotel/ restaurant index. Thus, if you have a recommended restaurant you want to look up, you have to go through all the restaurant pages 'til you stumble across the name you seek or miss seeing it completely. Another significant short coming when you wish to make a reservation, especially considering the 2000 published date of this guide, is the lack of website and email from any of the listed hotels. Most all Beijing hotels are connected to the web.

If you want a very good true 'pocket size' compact guide, "The MINI Rough Guide to Beijing" is a must buy and one of the best guides out today...Highly recommended. 4 1/4 stars....

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great maps, April 3, 2006

By	My Humble Opinion (Provo, UT United States) - See all my reviews

Even my sister, an x-pat living in Beijing, was impressed with the maps in this book. She said they were better than any maps she'd been able to find in-country. We still did get lost a couple of times, but overall managed very well. Also, the small list of English/Pinyin/Character words in the back came in very handy when we needed to buy a phonecard and no one understood our feeble attempts at spoken Chinese.