- ISBN13: 9780756625009
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
These two fascinating cities reflect different aspects of China – Beijing is the traditional capital, the seat of political power and home to the ancient monuments of Imperial China; Shanghai is both a financial powerhouse and a city at the cutting edge of fashion with an interesting modern history. This DK Eyewitness Travel Guide provides in-depth coverage of these cities, including Beijing’s Great Wall and Forbidden City, Shanghai’s Bund and the French Concession, as well as the water towns of Suzhou and Hangzhou, graced with serene and timeless gardens and lakes. Explore China’s cultural heritage through richly illustrated features – on everything from Beijing Opera to Confucianism, Chinese Gardens and the Cultural Revolution. Illustrated food features highlight the differing regional cuisines, and resident China experts have provided detailed listings of the best places to stay and eat. Specially devised walking tours take you easily to the heart of these bustling, enigmatic and ultimately bewitching cities.
The only thing good about this guide is its comprehensive road listing in the back of the Beijing and Shanghai sections. The best guide for a solid experience is Luxe’s various City Guides–the one for Shanghai is bomb. This guide is for boring people who have boring lives.
Rating: 1 / 5
I brought this travel guide with me to Beijing and Shanghai and in general thought it was useful and well-written. Unfortunately, the tiny serifed typeface was just too small for me to read easily. Not a problem for many people, but it sure was for me. I thought most of the information was accurate and helpful. I did not like the way they organized the book by mixing Beijing and Shanghai–I went to Beijing and wanted all that information and then I went to Shanghai and wanted all that info. I had to watch the color coding and page information to be sure I didn’t wander into the wrong city (not in real life, only in the pages of the guide). It was a little heavier than I expected and I would be willing to sacrifice some of the high quality pictures and paper in order to make it lighter. Even considering the things I didn’t like about the book, I would still buy it since the info was solid.
Rating: 3 / 5
Like all DK books, this one is very glossy and colorful. If you’re going on a packaged tour of these cities, this is a fine book to have. It has nice photos and maps of the major tourist attractions, as well as some historical information and suggested walking tours. On the other hand, if you’re going to be visiting these cities for an extended period, you will probably exhaust the information in this slim book pretty quickly.
If you’re a backpacker or independent tourist, this book will have limited value to you as there are only a handful of hotel and restaurant suggestions. The DK books are published much less frequently than other guidebooks, so I suppose extensive listings (like you find in annually updated guidebooks) would be obsolete a couple of years later.
This book does have a 2009 publication date and the Beijing subway map does include the new routes that were added for the 2008 Olympics.
Rating: 4 / 5
I waited for the new version to be released and found it very lacking. It was too high level to provide any real value. I ended up leaving the book at the hotel and used my friend’s Lonely Planet. I did hear great reviews about 10 Top Places to See (or something like that) by Eye Witness.
Rating: 2 / 5
I recently took a trip to China which included Beijing and Shanghai. I found the guide to be outstanding. A number of the people on the tour also had this guide, and I heard several comments on how good it was.
Rating: 5 / 5