Robert Storey | Nicko Goncharoff | Caroline Liou
From Antarctica to Zimbabwe, if you're going there, chances are Lonely Planet has been there first. With a pithy and matter-of-fact writing style, these guides are guaranteed to calm the nerves of first-time world travelers, while still listing off-the-beaten-path finds sure to thrill even the most jaded globetrotters. Lonely Planet has been perfecting its guidebooks for nearly 30 years and as a result, has the experience and know-how similar to an older sibling's "been there" advice. The original backpacker's bible, the LP series has recently widened its reach. While still giving insights for the low-budget traveler, the books now list a wide range of accommodations and itineraries for those with less time than money.
Just as the authors describe China as "massive and endlessly fascinating," so is the material they have collected in this guide--an important travelers' opus. The 200-plus maps feature keys in English and Chinese script and there are essential details on transport options, a 12-page Chinese arts section, and a useful feature on the Chinese language. --Kathryn True
1 A good review of LP.
I arrived home from China 2 weeks ago after being there for 2 weeks. I visited the most amazing places, and yes, I took the most recent LP with me. Alot of reviewers here have stated the lack of important information in this publication, however, I found this book to be valuble on my journey. China is a tough place to travel, English isnt spoken in most places and the general public (outside of those who deal with tourists often) are not a particularly friendly bunch to westerners. In reading this guide, you must take into account that it ISNT a tour guide, it is simply a reference to sites and popular places. I found the Chinese text to be very helpful when using taxi's. China is an ever changing place, and if you have ever been there, you will know how vast it really is. A mecca of laneways and confusing streets. LP was an invaluble read for me and I would recommend this guide for those who are imbarking on thier first trip to this wonderful place.
As a well travelled person, I have used LP many times in different places, I think some people forget to step outside the book and just find things on their own will...
2 Consider National Geographic Traveler
I received a copy of the Lonely Planet China as a gift. I am neutral about the book. Good general information. However...China is so dynamic and changing...it doesn't ring true in many cases.
I would suggest the National Geographic Traveler China guide. It is very well balanced...gives excellent background...so the traveler can interpret and experience the wonders of China through high quality text, pictures and maps.
I would still suggest the Lonely Planet guide for those that have not travelled much...and a starting point. But those that have past international travel experience will find it much too basic and generic. Nat'l Geographic will provide a comprehensive pretrip planning guide so you can best tailor your trip and will enhance your experience while visting.
Another factoid side note. The author of National Geographic Traveler China (Damian Harper) co-authored several guides of China, Beijing, and Hong Kong for Lonely Planet. To validate...click the D. Harper's name near the book title above. Same author...but with the quality of National Geographic.
3 Beware the book
To echo the words of other readers, this is disappointing and out of date.
On the second point, bear in mind that many prices have increased (sometimes more than doubled) since this book was published.
On the first, try to ignore almost every recommendation on accomodation and food that the guidebook makes. In many locations the majority of listed restaurants are Western and those that are Chinese are poor quality, high priced and seem to be recommended only for having an English menu. Go somewhere else, point, go for pot-luck or learn a little Chinese before you go and you'll enjoy everything much more.
4 Good for package tourists; not for exploration
They say that everything you hear about China is true somewhere. Everything you read in LP China may also be true somewhere but unfortunately not always where you are. Originally published in August 2002 this book is well past its prime. It is still superior to the Rough Guide but could use a serious update. Speaking of which the overleaf promises guidebook upgrades on the Internet but they discontinued this in favour of user discussion.
Pricing - the cost of tea in China, you say? Like most things in China, prices are in constant flux and I question the value of including them. They are more misleading than helpful. Tourist attractions will generally be higher than what the book says but other prices will be close.
Locations - I live in the city of Wuhan and in the last two year it has undergone tremendous changes. There is simply no way for a printed book to keep up with them. For example, in the last six months the bus routes in WuChang have changed four times.
If you are going to travel around China be flexible! Expect that nothing in the guidebook will be where you expected. Expect to bargain for everything, hotel prices included. Remember that any guide book is only a starting place. As I have travelled around southern China I have used this book as a starting point and then asked the locals what they would do. Most have never been to the "tourist sites" but can show you a great street restaurant just around the corner.
This book is great for those thinking of going to China but who will never make the trip, or for those who are going on a package trip to fourteen cities in eight days. For those who want to explore China on their own I would advise caution.
5 Complete Crap
This book is so bad. If I could give it 0 stars believe me, I would. Many of the things listed in this book no longer exist. I went to one city and all 4 places listed in the LP as budget accomodations were no longer in business. Maps were incorrect. Attractions were listed with one address and placed elsewhere (and incorrectly) on the map. It would help greatly of it had more Chinese of the locations listed so you can show cab drivers. I finally gave up, chucked it into the trash and continued my 4 month trip through Asia without consulting any guidebook and had a much nicer time. Down with the Lonely Liar! You don't need a guide book. Just talk to other travelers.
6 don't buy this book
Admittedly there are not many other China guidebooks around, but this one seriously sucked. I bought one at my local bookstore for a recent trip to China and (i) the attitude of the editors is simply disgusting [If they can't appreciate the country then they shouldn't even bother to write a book about it] (ii) too much of the info is extremely outdated. We all know that China is growing rapidly and whatnot but that really is no excuse for Lonely Planet to not do their homework and give us horrendously erronous info (iii) Any 'off-the-beaten-track' sight featured in Lonely Planet books inevitably become tourist traps for obvious reasons. It's the last time I'm ever buying Lonely Planet books. (Of course, there's the whole bring-the-hippies-there-and-ruin-the-place thing, which is yet another reason not to buy more Lonely Planet books...)
7 Don't be fooled. This is just the 7th edition
I had been anticipating the release of LPÁøs China 8th edition hoping it would fix the errors in the 7th edition and fill out the areas that were weak in the 7th edition. Guess what, there is NOTHING new in the 8th edition. The same errors from the 7th edition have been reproduced in full even though anyone who has spent more then a month in China in the last five years will know how laughably inaccurate the book is in places. ItÁøs still an OK guide but itÁøs terribly out of date and it is not only misleading but dishonest for them to call this an 8th edition. It is nothing more then a rerun of a previous edition.
8 the not so holy travel bible
i would have to agree with the negative reviews i've seen, and also the majority of travelers i have met in china. we all carry around the lp "bible", but also agree that it is one of the worst publications they have. it seems as you travel along that maybe lonely planet has not visited china or the places it talks about in a while. unfortunately it is one of the only publications of its type and it does contain a minimum of information that one may find useful at times. most of the informatino is outdated, even though i'm using the 2003 edition. Not to mention that they add the poorly written humor instead of a little more chinese script, which let me tell you goes a long way in a country where once you're out of the main cities, very few people speak english, and when they do it is not the best. some more useful word and phrases would be great, instead of how to say "eel fried with spinach and mushrooms". just the words for muchrooms, noodles, and rice would be nice, instead of forcing you to buy the mandarin phrase book, just to get the basics. another complaint i would have is in the compactnes. i realize this is a large country, but i feel like a lot of the space dedicated to useless information and adveritisments that you can't ever remove (for more lp bibles...) could be put to some much better use. All in all i have to say that while containing some very useful information, you're much better off photocopying the important pages and leaving the book at home.
9 A decent foundation for an enormous destination
I will agree that the LP China is out of date in many places, but in all fairness the only way to bat a thousand would to assign a team of writers working 365/24/7 to cover a nation as immense.
That said, I have to slam LP for misleading buyers that these new editions have much new data. They also put down their host country and that is not appropriate for a travel guide. I know the writers are mostly young and from either Oz or USA. So they try to impose their cultural/political views on the reader. I know this because in the 7th Edition I am credited in the Nanjing/Jiangsu section by the writer. I was a student at Nanjing Univ.
LP's Robert Storey is guilty of slamming China too often. He lives in Taiwan and his head is full of pro independence nonsense. BTW - having also lived in Taibei - Storey is a bit of a joke amongst young expats as telling to many "stories" - pun intended! He misses critical details for a traveler and instead romances the reader with his BS!
As with other reviews, this book is a set of training wheels but it is not the Bible. DO NOT PAY $30...get it used!!!!!!!
10 Equipment Failure
Backpacking in the mountains there is a thing called: equipment failure. It is when your sleeping bag does not keep you warm, even though you are well within the manufacture's temperature rating. It is when your tent leaks, where the manufacture did not get the stitching quite right. Depending on conditions such equipment failure can range from uncomfortable to fatal.
Recently I relied on Lonely Planet to bus from Hangzhou to Huangshan.
Time after time I found myself muttering to myself: Guide Book Failure!!! Guide Book Failure!!!
Guide book failure is normally not fatal.
And if you have a good sense of humor
and are a fairly seasoned traveller
it can be rather interesting
for you meet alot of friendly people who turned out to be very helpful.
So, as alot of other people above have pointed out, if you buy Lonely Planet, use it as a door stop, or place it on your coffee table, or press flower in it, but don't rely on it travelwise; and use your money instead to invite a few of the friendly, helpful people you encounter on your trip to China to a coffee, drink or meal.
Bon voyage
11 An arrogant nightmare
I agree with the previous reviewer when he says a) the arrogant tone of previous editions continues here, b) if you have an old edition, there is no need to upgrade, as there isn't much new here as they really don't update much. That second point is particularly egrigious, as there has been so much change in China of late. The most classic example is in the South West of China (there is a separate guidebook for this, which is better, but not much). The guidebook refers to Chengdu as "backpacker's paradise", but I'm here to tell you there are a lot of sorely disappointed backpackers who've wound up in Chengdu on this advice and left pretty quickly. Or tried to leave quickly but couldn't, as while the book tells you that there are 85 trains to different places, it shows there are four different train stations on the map in completely different places in town, wbut never tells you which is the main one or which one you might need to get to to get the heck out of dodge. Other descriptions include bus lines as "luxiourious rulers of the road" when there's not even a bus line in the town. This continues everywhere throughout the book. The Beijing section is *particularly* bad when it comes to listing cheap accomodation anywhere near Tianamen Square. According to the book, it is woefully lacking. But if they'd ever listed YHA hostels (they don't, who knows why), there's more cheap, clean, English speaking beds within walking distance of T-Square than you can imagine. Something like 2000 of them. When I met up with a friend in Beijing and we prepared to get on the Trans-Mongolian out of the country, we didn't even leave this book behind, we actually burned it and did a little dance that we wouldn't have to use it again.
12 Disappointing installment from LP
I have used Lonely Planet guides since 1996 to help me travel to nearly 30 countries and until now, I found them the best resource available for getting off the beaten tourist-track. Unfortunately, this edition of LP China disappoints. I like the logistical information (I give an extra star for that), but I am really dismayed at the emphasis given to popular spots, "backpacker meccas", places "beloved by backpackers", "a good place to 'kick back'", etc. It even goes as far as to show contempt for people looking for the "'real China'". I think I will look for another title, and if there is not a better one out there then I will write my own. As LP is alienating their core market here, maybe a new opportunity opens for new writers...
13 Inaccurate even when brand-new
I was carrying around a copy of the 7th edition LP China in Yunnan this past summer, and when I saw the newly-released 8th edition in a bookstore in Dali I snatched it up right away. Unfortunately, in Dali and in fact in most of Yunnan even the 8th edition seems to be already out of date; many of the Dali restaurants they mentioned didn't exist any more, and several of the hotels had either disappeared or become much more seedy than LP let on. Plus their descriptions seem out-of-date; in the last few years, all but the farthest reaches of Yunnan have gotten smothered with Chinese tourists, so a lot of the old town charm that they go on and on about simply doesn't exist any more. Admission fees at several places had gone up, too, in some cases (like Shilin) to such an extent that a budget traveler might change their mind about visiting them at all. This wasn't just confined to Yunnan, either; even in Shanghai it seemed that the guide was already out-of-date on several fronts.
There are also the usual LP problems: the arrogance and cynicism of previous LP China editions persists in this one, and while the maps are good (and expanded in detail) it would be nice if they'd list a few more hotels, particularly in China where they close and open so frequently.
If you've got an older edition of LP, don't bother upgrading; and if you're shopping around for a new China guide, don't let LP's publication date fool you into thinking it's any more accurate than its competitors.
14 A very hard and very well-managed and great endeavour
This edition of "Lonely Planet China" is excellent. It is better than the previous one, which was very good itself but had some weaknesses. Despite the immensity of China and the numberless topics and regions that have to be covered herein, the authors have done an excellent job indeed. Most of LP's masterpieces are guidebooks to much smaller countries or regions (it is indeed inevitable for travel guidebooks to be the better, in overall terms, the smaller the region they cover). But this one is an exception: despite its hugeness, China has been covered with superb maestry by people who do know about it. Having said this, we cannot diminish the importance of LP's guidebooks to Beijing and Shanghai - if you are planning to spend much time in those cities, it may be a good idea to get those guidebooks also, since this huge and heavy book cannot cover as much of those cities as the authors thsemselves would obviously love to. The same obviously applies for Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwan, and Tibet, all of which have generated their own LP guidebooks. Xinjiang is instead wonderfully covered in "LP Central Asia". This is not to persuade you to get more and more guidebooks, but China is indeed an immense place and one book can hardly be enough to cover it all in depth. In this book itself, its excellent coverage of some regions is stronger than others: it is better on the Coastal towns than it is on the deep interior of China, which reflects indeed the number of tourists who go to these places. Having said this, this book does nevertheless contain most of what a visitor will need or want to know about big China. And in a place that is chaotic and tough for foreigners like China, this may indeed be an essential tool for the less experienced travellers, and a greatly useful aid to the more experienced ones too. The coverage of places to stay and eat is absolutely excellent, not just for the major cities but also for minor towns and sites (the authors would indeed seem to have been to everywhere in China where the government did not stop them from going !). The section on permits and other legal matters is of immense value to anyone, and well up-to-date. And of course, the sections and special chapters on history, culture, religion, are extremely well written, great for the traveller and the armchair reader alike. Even though the best discoveries are those a traveller will make herself / himself, this guidebook is surely a great tool and help in anyone's discovery of this wonderful land. All in all, a masterpiece despite its limitations. A weakness is of course that things being as volatile as they are in China, information is subject to unexpected changes, and some may have become out-of-date by the time this book was printed. But this is of course inevitable, and it simply means that - as in any country - a traveller should not rely on only a guidebook, but make a considerable effort to gain as much as possible of current circumstances on her / his own, which is in fact part of the wonderful travel experience.
15 Good travel literature, but not a good guide book!
Lonely Planet China provides excellent introduction on the destinations and I do enjoy reading it. I appreciate the writers and the editors to have done such wonderful research on those small villages and towns.
However, most of the "practical" information is getting unpractical, because it's apparently far outdated. Hotel rate, admission fees, cost of the food and so on are really misleading the travelers! After traveling thouroughly in China, I really do not believe I can find a place that costs 10 RMB per night, even in a backpacker's guest house.
I have to say, this is not a good "guide book" as most of the supposed to be useful info is useless.
16 A whole new world
I think that if you're thinking to go to China, you need a travel guide, and this is the best.
Very easy to handle, with a lot of tips that you need to travel safetly.
Thousands of places to stay, from backpacker's meccas and secluded monasteries to Shangai's swanky suites.
The Lonely Planet Guides are always the best choice.
17 Preety good for a sparse field
This is a pretty good book, but the points about it inaccuracies should be noted. In their defense China is a very rapidly changing country (in shanghai I once counted over thirty cranes from one spot) so any guidebook will quickly be out of date. [...] if you are looking for a guidebook to paint you a pretty discovery channel Sunday school vision - this is not the book for you. On the other hand if you are a serious traveler who wants to get a more 'real' travel experience this is probably the best book in the pack of china guides. I know its been a big help to me on a number of occasions.
18 There are better guides
China continues to change at a hair-raising pace so I can almost forgive the fact that Lonely Planet can't seem to keep up. Except that it should be able to catch up after three editions yet somehow manages to lag behind even that schedule.
I can't forgive at all the snarky attitude of its writers who seem to operate on the principle, "if you don't have anything nice to say, try at least to make it sound witty and superior." The result is usually smug cynicism, which is an unattractive attitude in a traveller, and all the more trying when all you really want to do is find the hotel after 36 hours in hard class. Sometimes I get the feeling these guys don't really like to travel...
Rather than simply being obsolete, or imprecise as another reviewer notes, Lonely Planet is often simply inaccurate. How do they do it? I'm not sure. I've had reports that the underpaid and tightly itineraried writers can't always complete their assignments and sometimes rely on second-hand information from other travellers. I've met a German guidebook writer (not lonely planet) who admitted she'd done the same, so it's not all that far-fetched.
China can be a frustrating country for budget travellers, particularly those with no other option than train or bus on long journeys. Not much english is spoken, even in the major cities and the whole country appears to operate under alien premises. (These happen to be two of the best reasons to travel there.) However, outdated, imprecise and inaccurate guidebooks just exacerbate the potential frustrations.
There are better guidebooks. Consider titles in the Cadogan Guide series, particularly "China: The Silk Routes" by Peter Neville-Hadley. Read the editorial and customer reviews on its Amazon page, which are bang on.
Oh, by the way, I took one star off for inaccuracy and two for being unpleasant. China's a tough assignment but it's no reason to get nasty.
19 Poor Effort
I recently traveled for ten weeks in mainland China using LP's China guidebook. I have used the Lonely Planet series for over thirty countries and find them to be among the best if not the best of all the guidebooks out there. This edition falls short. Way short! I sometimes wondered if I was in the same city the guidebook was describing. For example, LP calls Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, a "budget traveler's paradise" and then goes on to mention three places in a city of over 9 million people. In Hangzhou, their first recommendation is a vacant lot and has been for a year. Second pick is a restaurant.I began to really wander if anyone actually "traveled" these places to update them or just sat around in Yunnan Province,a drank beer and depended on other travelers for information. The bood has many good points. The maps are good. The transportation info is still fairly accurate and the use of Chinese characters is extremely helpful. It is not impossible to use the latest edition as your only guide. It is just that you had better have some well-developed travel skills before venturing into China and hoping this book will save you. It won't.
20 DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK
Unless you buy tourist guidebooks to read about gratuitious violence, find another book. My husband bought me this book for Christmas 2 yrs ago to help celebrate our decision to adopt a baby girl from China. Reading Christmas morning, expecting an exciting prelude to our next adventure, we got instead a horrific recount via a sidebar about an unspeakable act of violence to a dog somewhere in China. We have shelves in our library filled with travel books and there will never be a lonely planet guide guide among them.
21 THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE OF GUIDEBOOKS!!!
the reviewer from ottowa, ontario canada was way off. this book is the swiss army knife of practical knowledge concerning how to survive, get around, and even have a great time in the massively complex and ever-changing world that is china. granted, the book has a cheeky, irreverant air to it, but believe me when i say this humor came as a great psychological boost at times. i know, i travelled extensively in china for 1 year and also lived in shanghai. i went there speaking no chinese at all and managed to learn to speak passably well by the time i had to leave.
let's be realistic; it is impossible to fit all of china into 1 book. shanghai alone could fill a book this size, but what lonely planet sacrifices in up-to-the-minute nightlife coverage in major cities (this purpose is served far better by english city mags) and historical information (not to mention pretty pictures) it more than makes up for with it's sheer volume of practical information from all over china. how to get to, tour, eat, sleep, and even attempt to get off the beaten track (becoming really hard in china) at any location in this massive country.
i sincerely believe it would take a lifetime for a single individual to compile this much information.
this book isn't perfect, some info is out-of-date, but if you're going to china, it is indispensible.
22 Read before you go but don't pack it with you
China is such a great country both in area and history. I found this relatively small book not as useful as other LP guides for smaller countries or areas. Nearly 1 billion of China's population are farmers and live most of their life in rural, agriculture orient villages. This book just can't cover that part of China well. It might did good enough of covering big cities and modern part of Chinese living but certainly missed out a lot too. You can read this book for getting general information and try to get other LP guides targeting smaller areas. Try LP Southwestern China!
commenter lives in a former China ruled island, Taiwan outlying mainland China where now is politically separated from communist China. China and Taiwan both share the traditional Chinese culture.
23 like a pair of training wheels
The China LP is an excellent resource for the novice traveller to China if you use it correctly. By "use it correctly," I mean that you have to learn to ignore large chunks of it. Some of the info is invaluable for even the most veteran China-traveller: the maps showing where the train stations and cheap foreigner-accepting hotels are (perhaps the most annoying phenomenon in China is the proliferation of cheap guesthouses that, owing to Commie regulations, cannot accept foreigners. In this aspect, the LP is a life-saver; I've wasted literally half my day trying to find accomodation in cities not covered by the LP). For the uninitiated, the LP can be somewhat helpful for showing where the major sights in Beijing, Hong Kong, Xi'an, and other large cities are.
For Chinese speakers, the recent revisions have been particularly helpful, with the addition of characters throughout the book (instead of in the annoying, hard-to-find glossary secton in each chapter).
However, that being said, I really despise the LP. In terms of restaurants and food, AVOID USING THE LP AT ALL COSTS. You will waste your time trying to find non-existant or crappy, overly expensive restaurants. China (especially southern China) is packed with some of the best food in the world in the most unexpected places. Do not waste your time chasing after a restaurant on the other end of Guangzhou when every street corner has a little restaurant that's incredible. Half the fun of China for me was exploring all of the street vendors and little holes in the wall.
For those of who want to see anything outside of the major cities without being funnelled into the tourist ghettos known as Dali, Yangshuo, and Lijiang, avoid this book like the plague. Those three tourist traps are mind-numbing in their monotony of banana pancakes and muesli with yogurt. Most of the people who use the LP to guide them through China are essentially spending a huge wad of cash to fly to China in order to avoid as much as possible actually being in China. Easily the most edifying experience I had in China was when I to places uncovered by the LP (e.g. far western Sichuan, southern Qinghai). Admittedly, to get outside of these ghettos requires a least a modicum of Chinese language ability, but this can be overcome be finding help from other travellers who speak Chinese, natives who speak English, or, in the worst case, using a phrasebook.
China is a difficult country to travel in, but the only interesting experiences you'll have is when you drop the book and open yourself up to unexpected ephiphanies.
24 Needs massive overhaul - 3 1/2 stars
Just got back from China and used the latest edition as guide. That's all it is... a guide. Tries to be your "insider" pal but fails on several fronts. China's too darn big and changing too fast for any publisher to dare think a single "China" volume is sufficient. I mean, would you trust a single "USA" guidebook? Of course not, even if it's as thick as a phone book (and this ungainly little brick is just that).
Many wonderful sights/attractions/wonders are not even mentioned... Did editor decide to excise them, or do researchers look only so far?? I, for one, would have liked to see more attractions mentioned. But if the LP people are going to keep up the chatty little comments with every such entry (a Lonely Planet hallmark), they will have to break up "China" into many volumes. For example, book does not even show on Wuhan map the fascinating, large Taoist temple there... cutting the chit-chat about Mao's Villa there (worth visiting but the text on it is useless) could have made room. But if they want to keep the cute comments (surfing buddhas on a temple wall in Kunming, overrated herbalist in Lijiang, Europe in miniature in Chengdu), they are going to have to break the book up into at least three volumes.
Restaurant reviews could be chopped in half, that's for sure. They are boring, outdated, sometimes wholly erroneous. Phone numbers have always been a joke in LP editions for any country I have used ...I own some seventeen LP's... but these numbers were wholly useless to me on my recent trip.
As other reviewers note, it is necessary to concede that China is always changing, and with growing speed. Perhaps LP just can't send their researchers out fast enough. But there are enough expats living in Chinese cities to be tapped for updates. Incidentally, expats are a great resource for any traveller... already Shanghai and Beijing have weekly "what's on" style tabloids in English that are very helpful to the visitor. Anyway, on the expat account alone, generally clever LP editors really have little excuse for not having a finger on China's latest and greatest.
What's good about Lonely Planet China?? Liberal use of Chinese characters and Pinyin romanization, for one thing. Made it super easy to communicate with taxi drivers. The Orientation section for each city is excellent... three paragraphs to prepare you for the layout and characteristics of the city. History section is good, too. I truly love the off-the-beaten path viewpoint that makes Lonely Planet so much fun... so I hope future editions retain this, while getting on the ball with useful / necessary details.
Using this book, traveller / reader will get a generally good trip, but will be led astray / waste time more than once by old info (where to catch bus to Buddha, where to find Muslim food, etc), and from incomplete phone numbers.
25 Organized...Informative...More Bang for your Buck!
I don't know what else to say...I love Lonely Planet Guidebooks. Aside from the fact that they are better looking than other guidebooks, they are also organized in a much more coherant fashion. This LP 'China' edition is much better than say 'Fodor's China' because of certain sections that help you to achieve a much more enjoyable experience. One section will help you plan a hike the remote Simatai section of the Great Wall, another fully explains Yangze river cruises, another exploring the hutongs in Beijing by bike. So fat and satisfying...you won't mind lugging it around at all. Buy it and go to China and spill Sichuan sauce all over it.
26 Necessary but unsatisfactory
The lonely planet China guides, for the two years that I taught in China, were indispensable for its general information about places that do not disappear overnight, e.g., train stations, large hotels and hostels. It is relatively useful in physically orienting yourself with cities and the larger tourist destinations. If you want a more informative guide on the history of places that you visit, I would suggest the Rough Guide. General information on what to expect when traveling in china is also useful however some of this is outdated as well.
Outside of this, the Lonely Planet essentially provides you with a tour of China without being on a tour. Everyone and their Grandmother that has a backpack will have this book. Do not expect to find little known attractions with this book, as when a site shows up here, it immediately becomes an overnight success. This is particularly true of all of the restaurant listings and entertainment venues as many of them actually vie to be mentioned in this book. I have also seen many a decent restaurant ruined by callous and hastey remarks.
I have good reason to believe that the Lonely Planet does not verify all that they publish from one edition to the next. While I lived in Chengdu, a new edition came out and listed several restaurants and bars that had been closed for over a year and a half- more than ample time for the Lonely Planet to verify their existence.
With all of this said, no other guidebook remotely comes close to matching the utility of the Lonely Planet. Its an essential point of departure, that I would recommend augmenting with other resources, to discovering your own adventures in China.
27 Already Out of Date
Let's face it, China's a big place and changing at the speed of light. I credit this newest edition of LP China for trying to keep up but as a frequent traveler to China, I've been frustrated to no end in seeking the dead-end addresses and recommendations that's listed in this edition. There's so many inaccuracies, it's embarrassing. Previously "undiscovered" spots are now teeming with tourists, there's a sorry list of restaurants and most of the ones listed seem to cater to foreigners anyway, making redundant the China experience. I'm usually a big fan of Lonely Planet, but LP books seem increasingly to be chock full of unnecessary and often demeaning commentary towards the local population. Noone can hope to try to understand China, so keep your smarmy opinions out of it, editors! I can buy Paul Theroux for that and have a LP that's lighter in the backpack.
28 You Must Have This Book If You Go To China!
I first travelled to China in 1998 and brought with me the then current edition of the Lonely Planet. My review of it is here somewhere. Despite being on a guided and highly structured tour, I found the guide absolutely indespensible and I used it constantly before and during my trip.
China has changed so much in just two years. The change is even more evident in the major touristy type cities such as Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. Fortunately, as China changes so does the Lonely Planet guide. And fortunately, the guide is just as good as ever.
I enjoyed the LP China book for two reasons. First off, the background information is so awesome for preperation for a trip to China. China is a great trip, but at times it is not an easy trip. However, the guide does a good job of letting you know ahead of time what wonders, amazments, and frustrations may lie ahead.
Once in China the book is awesome on where to go, the background and history of where you are, and how to get there. The maps and train times are oh so important.
China is a great and challenging trip. To do it right you need to be ready for it before and while there. Simply put, the LP book is the best way to get ready for a big trip to China.
This book never left my side during two trips to China. This book is worth every penny it costs.
29 Very Useful
I used this book when traveling alone in China twice. The cultural descriptions of China's many and diverse regions were helpful, accurate and hardly suffused with glamor. More importantly, the nuts and bolts travel information such as hotels, railroads, airlines, regulations, etc. was right on the mark.
A word of warning, if you're spending time in Kunming, some of the streets and restaurants referenced in this book no longer exist because of the massive construction effort there.
30 It was a survival guide for me in China
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.
31 Opinionated bordering on utter disrespect
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.
32 Good, useful guide with some inaccuracies.
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.
33 Indispensible
Road tested the Shanghai section in Shanghai in May 2000. Indispensible - especially the section on scams - could have been taken if not forewarned.
34 A REQUIRED Book to carry WHILE in China
Lonely Planet has THE BEST travel guides for anyone travelling in any country. In many cases, especially covering areas that see more visitors than others, the coverage is excellent, very detailed. HOWEVER, for areas that see fewer visitors (like the section on Changsha, Hunan), there are several errors, usually in the area of places to stay and eat. (In past editions of this book, the map of Changsha was wrong. I do not know whether this has been corrected.) It almost appears that the person who was supposed to cover this area couldn't be bothered to really check the city out.
No matter what, whether you are just going for a short visit OR going to live there for a while, you must pack this book. IT WILL BE A BIBLE TO LIVE BY!
35 This is the Guide Book for China
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.
36 LP Guide Delivers A Great Outline for Adeventurous Travelers
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.
37 The experience of my life !
Last April I visited China for the first time. It was one of the best experiences in my life. I love traveling. Thanks to my LP of China I planned my trip and I took advantage of the time I spent there. For those that never had used a LP guide and are planning to travel anywhere in the world, the sense that the place you are visiting for the first time is familiar, will become a day to day experience while traveling... thanks to your LP guide. Regards from Mexico.
38 useful but not always accurate
it must at once be pointed out this guide is not always accurate and up-to-date in its coverage of china, though, to be sure, part of the problem lies in the country itself, which is so vast and changing at such a rate that nobody can really catch up. now is a good time to visit china because prices are at an all-time low, generally much lower than the lp guide indicates. in beijing, even, i've seen 18 yuan ($2) peking ducks and 2 yuan (25 cents) beers! of course there are all sorts of places where you can spend thousands, but lp doesn't give you an adequate idea of how cheap china can be, which is really one of the chief reasons for travelling there. the truth is that much of what this country has to offer can be enjoyed elsewhere, and more easily. modern china is a surprisingly new country, and all the fabled ancient sites have been destroyed long ago. other than some beautiful natural sights, which you can after all find all over the world, 99% of what you find are later reconstructions. the primary attractions are the cheap prices and 1.3 billion people,which is an experience to be remembered forever. surprisingly this guide does not mention zhouzhuang, a village near shanghai, in which relatively large portions of old china has been preserved.
39 If you hear of a better book, don't hesitate to buy it!
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.
40 Full of inaccuracies, sloppy, not worth buying
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.
41 Not helpful for lone female travellers
While I was in China this past January visiting the cities of Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an my sister and I used the Lonely Planet Guide as our main guide to attractions and accomadations. unfortunatly many of the information is inaccurate. The places we looked for were often harder to find than the Lonely Planet showed and sometimes didn't even exist at all. Plus the Lonely Planet is written from primarily a male travellers perspective and the experience of lone female travellers can be vastly different. It's major attribute is finding cheap hotel and hostel accomadation.
42 Misses a lot but overall useful for travel in CHina
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.
43 It kept us alive!
The highest praise I can give this book is that it kept my wife and I alive and relatively sane during our three-week jaunt around China. We set off with little in the way of a plan, and this book found us the best hotels on our small budget and helped us get around and warned us of perils. We saw things we would never have considered otherwise.
44 To much opinions one can do without
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
45 Inaccurate, sloppy, semi-literate, overrated
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).
46 Everything you ever needed in a travel book
This book is a must-have, must-buy if you are planning a trip to China. If you don't speak Chinese, the book is terrific. It contains all of the commonly used phrases for every situation that you could possibly encounter in China. In addition, it has extraordinarily detailed directions on how to travel within the country. Almost every tourist you will meet has a Lonely Planet in hand.
It is true that there are no equivalents of this book within China and the people that I have met there think that the book is very thorough. In general, most people in China do not get to travel a great deal so there are not a lot of travel books in China. I would recommend all Lonely Planet books for travel throughout Asia.
47 Everything you ever needed in a travel book
This book is a must-have, must-buy if you are planning a trip to China. If you don't speak Chinese, the book is terrific. It contains all of the commonly used phrases for every situation that you could possibly encounter in China. In addition, it has extraordinarily detailed directions on how to travel within the country. Almost every tourist you will meet has a Lonely Planet in hand.
It is true that there are no equivalents of this book within China and the people that I have met there think that the book is very thorough. In general, most people in China do not get to travel a great deal so there are not a lot of travel books in China. I would recommend all Lonely Planet books for travel throughout Asia.
48 Best Coverage of Yunnan and Lijiang
Of the major guidebooks, Lonely Planet has the best coverage of Yunnan, and of the Lijiang area -- which is fast becoming one of the hottest destinations in Asia.
49 Must have for any trip to China!
This little red book is THE travel guide to have for independent travelers to China! It is well researched, the maps are terrific (better than most maps you can get in China) and the inaccuracies are minor, considering how fast the country is changing. The Chinese I met were impressed by the amount and quality of the information in this book ... they don't seem to have books of similar parallel.
50 The Clarity of Clarity
Superbly written and informative. A good background before anyone goes on a trip to China and certainly shouldn't leave without it. Still, a more regular update would make it perfect!
51 Best Travel Companion in China!
This travel guide helped me when I traveled to China last summer. It included all the essential information that I needed each time I traveled to a new city. What I liked about it was that it listed places to visit and stay according to experiences from previous travelers and thus provided an excellent resource in making decisions. I recommend that anyone travelling to China MUST buy this book.
52 Best overall book for travelling to China.
This book is very detailed and pays a great deal of attention to the interesting parts of China within the major cities and in areas more remote.
53 If you're traveling to China, you need this book
The publisher, Lonely Planet, calls this book a "travel survival kit", and they're exactly right. It includes a wealth of useful information, including a brief history of China, a short Mandarin phrase book, advice on things to pack and places to see, a quick course on Chinese culture, and lots of great information (including maps, of course) for practically any place you might visit. I used this book constantly during my trip, and would have been lost (literally and figuratively) without it. It seemed to be standard issue for the travelers I encountered. Even some of the locals were impressed with "inside" information I found in it, such as the restaurant and nightclub recommendations. I also found the information provided about the historical sites I visited was generally far superior to any English-language descriptions I could find there.
In short, don't go to China without it.
