|
China (Eyewitness Travel Guides) | 
 enlarge | Author: Dk Publishing
Publisher: DK Travel
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy Used: $9.29
You Save: $20.71 (69%)
New (40) Used (20) from $9.29
Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 26337
Media: Vinyl Bound
Pages: 672
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 0756609194
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.1046
EAN: 9780756609191
ASIN: 0756609194
Publication Date: August 15, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, best prices.
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The DK travel guide helps you to get the most out of your trip to China, providing expert recommendations as well as detailed practical information. The opening chapter Introducing China maps the country and sets it in its historical and cultural context. Each of the seven regional sections is divided into area chapters that cover from one to three provinces each. Here you will find descriptions of the most important sights with maps, pictures and illustrations. Hotel and restaurant recommendations can be found in Travelers Needs . The Survival Guide contains practical information on everything from transport personal safety.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Good intro guide October 15, 2006
Charles E. Stevens
74 out of 75 found this review helpful
I used two tour books to plan my trip to China: Eyewitness for the general details of the itinerary, and Lonely Planet for the logistical details. The Eyewitness guide has a massive amount of beautiful photographs and illustrations that help give the traveler an idea of the sights he or she can choose from, which is very important--unless you have a year or so to spare, planning a trip to China is as much about choosing what NOT to see as it is choosing what to see. I could also see this being the perfect guide for the more casual traveler; someone in a tour group or someone accompanying a designated "navigator."
That being said, if you are traveling solo (that is, not in a tour group or other organized group of some kind) you will also want to have a more "details-heavy" guide such as the Lonely Planet, which is full of details Eyewitness does not have, including bilingual maps and place names, as well as more and deeper descriptions of sightseeing locations, hotels, restaurants, and nightlife.
All tour books have their strengths and weaknesses, and although the lesser amount of logistical details is the main drawback of Eyewitness China, the large number of helpful photos and illustrations is its main strength. Although solo travelers will need a little more than this, for the casual or group traveler this guide alone would probably be more than enough to enjoy your trip to the Middle Kingdom.
 good guide book, recommended over Lonely Planet November 28, 2006
almosthappy (San Diego, CA, California)
43 out of 47 found this review helpful
This is actually my fourth DK guide book. Prior to DK Eyewitness China, I've used Eyewitness Great Britain, Eyewitness London, and Eyewitness Paris on my previous backpacking/business trips. Never had any problems with any of the aforementioned titles. So this year, my wife and I decided to use the DK Eyewitness China for our 3.5 week vacation in the Middle Kingdom. We have also brought a copy of Lonely Planet, figuring it would give us more information over the image-intensive DK guide. The decision to bring along the Lonely Planet guide turned out to be a mistake and an extra pound or two that we didn't really need in our suitcase. The few times we attempted to use the Lonely Planet guide for information on various cities, we found exactly none of the information we needed. Instead, we got an earful of ramblings intended for college backpacking kids. DK guide, on the other hand, provided very easy to use maps and no-nonsense information. If you're exploring a major site, DK's 3d pictorial coverage is especially helpful in term of quickly orienting yourself. Sure, this book doesn't cover everything. Frankly, overall, Lonely Planet probably does offer more information - if you have the patience to read through all the horrible writings to get to the point. But if you want a highly usable and well-designed tour book that's lean and mean, this one is for you. Recommended.
 Useful book, but kind of outdated! August 24, 2005
B. Zhao (New Haven, CT)
29 out of 37 found this review helpful
This is a book trying to fit 5,000 years of history. It succeeds in doing that and gives every first timers a lot of details about the places they are visiting. However, the pictures they use cannot compare with other DK series books, they are old (some from the 70s) and therefore not showing the real country as it is now.
So get your camera and go to see it yourself.
4.5 Stars... Great introductory guide April 8, 2007
Paul Allaer (Cincinnati)
26 out of 28 found this review helpful
In preparing for a recent business trip to China (my first time going there), I asked one of my (Chinese national) colleagues for a few suggested books that provide a good overview of China, both from the historical perspective as well as the "touristy" perspective, and this is the book that was recommended to me.
I've had "China (Eyewitness Travel Guides)" (672 pages) for a couple of months, and found it fascinating reading but really didn't want to judge it until I had a chance to put it to the test while traveling in China. Well, I am here to tell you that the book performed great from that perspective as well. But before we get to that, let me point out that the first 70 pages of the book, providing a general overview and a summary of China's 5000 year history are nothing short of essential, and one of the things that set this book apart from many other China travel guides.
The real test of the book came for me when I was in some of the not so obvious places on my trip. Yes, we all have heard about and know some things of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, but what about places like Xi'An (in Shaanxi Province) and Xiamen (in Fujian Province), which I happened to visit. The information provided by this book is just excellent, and helped me prepare, both mentally and otherwise, for my trip. I agree that the "Where to Stay" and "Where to Eat" sections in the back of the book are not the best parts of the book, and frankly I did not use them for my trip, although I did find the practical tips such as "Do's and Don'ts of Eating Etiquette" quite helpful. Not only does this book make a great travel guide, but it is on top of that available here on Amazon for 40% off of the book's cover price. You can't go wrong with this.
The best we got October 11, 2005
Ray Indra Nugraha (Indonesia)
19 out of 22 found this review helpful
Although China is one of the most popular destination today, amazingly there is very little good reference book about it.
This is one of the good one; a continuing great series of DK.
However, perhaps because China is so large, each province only have a small coverage about them. Won't satisfy the thirst of a comprehensive information on China.
|
|
|
|
| |
