Grand Asia

CRUISE WEST
Grand Asia | READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE
Kobe to Hanoi

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Fodor's Exploring China •  Christopher Knowles
GUIDEBOOK • 2007 • PAPER • 288 PAGES
This excellent series has done it again with a stylish guidebook laced with maps and color photos that brings to life old and contemporary China. With separate sections on suggested places to visit, recommended walks, practical information including travel facts, the basics of communications, climate, money, electricity, photography, and transportation, descriptions of restaurants and hotels, ratings of sights, a language guide with Chinese phrases and numbers, a chronology of dynasties and historic events, even a small section on traditional arts and crafts, and chapters on the Silk Road, Beijing, and Xi'an, this is a complete and handy reference for any trip to China. (CHN25, $22.00)

Insight Guide Vietnam •  Scott Rutherford
GUIDEBOOK • 2006 • PAPER • 381 PAGES
A volume in the award-winning Insight series, this guide is noted for its wonderful photography, superb production and informative short essays. It is a highly recommended introduction to Vietnamese history and culture -- as well as a good overview of popular destinations. (VNM02, $23.95)

In Praise of Shadows •  Junichiro Tanizaki •  Thomas J. Harper •  Edward G. Seidensticker
ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1980 • PAPER • 56 PAGES
This essay by the great Japanese novelist, first published in 1933, offers tremendous insight into Japanese aesthetics. It's an earthy meditation on traditional Japanese art, architecture and design. Most illuminating. (JPN19, $9.95)

Descending the Dragon, My Journey Down the Coast of Vietnam •  Jon Bowermaster •  Rob Howard
TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2008 • PAPER • 144 PAGES
Bowermaster and a team, including his long suffering foreign press monitor and photographers set forth from Hanoi, by kayak, to explore the long coast of Vietnam on an eight-week journey of discovery. (VNM121, $21.95)

Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China •  Jung Chang
BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2003 • PAPER • 524 PAGES • FAVORITE
A riveting tale of three generations spanning the end of Old China, Mao's regime and the Japanese occupation. Chang chronicles the enormous changes in China since 1929 through her family's story, which includes arrest during the Cultural Revolution, exile to the Sichuan wilderness and coming to terms with the bewildering state of China today. It's quite a tale, wonderfully told without a trace of rancor or bitterness. Living in London since 1978, Chang visits her mother back in China every year. You can imagine Chang with notebook in hand back in the family apartment absorbed in the stories of her much-loved mother. The book opens with the statement, "At the age of 15 my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general. It was 1929 and China was in chaos." (CHN04, $16.00)

Asia Map •   Kummerly and Frey
MAP
A map of all of Asia at a scale 1:12,000,000, including the Arabian Peninsula and featuring colorful topographical relief. One Side. 32x40 inches. (ASA12, $18.95)

Related Categories

Ancient Angkor •  Claude Jacques •  Michael Freeman • GUIDEBOOK • Organized geographically, this indispensable guide to the monuments, architecture, culture, religion and history of Angkor features hundreds of color photographs, site plans and maps. (CBD15, $25.00)

Exploring Kyoto, On Foot through the Ancient Capital •  Judith Clancy • GUIDEBOOK • Featuring 30 well-crafted walking tours of neighborhoods, gardens and sanctuaries. (JPN26, $16.95)

Eyewitness Guide Vietnam and Angkor Wat •   Eyewitness Guides • GUIDEBOOK • An illustrated guide to the culture, history and attractions of Vietnam and Angkor, featuring site diagrams, maps and photographs. (VNM102, $25.00)

Fodor's Hong Kong's 25 Best •   Fodor's • GUIDEBOOK • A shirt-pocket guide and map. (HKG09, $11.95)

Fodor's Shanghai's 25 Best •   Fodor's • GUIDEBOOK • This shirt-pocket guide, with an excellent map of the city, includes a choice selection of attractions, shops and restaurants. (CHN60, $11.95)

A Traveller's History of Japan •  Richard Tames • HISTORY • A lively and concise narrative history of Japan and its transformation from Shinto, Shogun and Samurai traditions to 20th-century powerhouse. (JPN09, $14.95)

China, A New History •  John Fairbank •  Merle Goldman • HISTORY • A sweeping history of China from the Paleolithic to Tiananmen, revised with a new chapter by Merle Goldman. A standard for history buffs. (CHN11, $22.50)

China, Inc. How the Rise of the Next Superpower Changes America and the World •  Ted C. Fishman • HISTORY • An economist and former commodities trader, Ted Fishman draws on statistics, case studies and interviews in this lively economic history and guide to understanding China's spectacular economic growth and future prospects. (CHN305, $16.00)

Hiroshima •  John Hersey • HISTORY • Never sensational, this classic by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Hersey, first published in 1946, puts a human face on the unthinkable. Hersey explores the tragedy through interviews with residents, scientists and politicians. (JPN20, $7.50)

Hong Kong •  Jan Morris • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • FAVORITE • A wonderful portrait of Hong Kong by one of our favorite writers. Morris enumerates the many personal pleasures of the city, deftly interweaving reportage, history and culture. (HKG02, $17.00)

Understanding China, A Guide to China's Economy, History, and Politics •  John Bryan Starr • HISTORY • John Bryan Starr, a professor of history and former director of the China Association, brings his classroom experience to this admirably brief, clearheaded introduction to contemporary China. (CHN196, $16.00)

Understanding Vietnam •  Neil Jamieson • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • Jamieson's ambitious primer addresses politics, social history, village life, structural renewal, literature and the arts, illuminating the Vietnamese worldview with insight and depth. It's the single best introduction to Vietnam. (VNM01, $25.95)

Search for Ancient China •  Corinne Debaine-Francfort • ARCHAEOLOGY • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE • With information on everything from jewelry to emperors' tombs, the Great Wall and the dazzling 400-year Han empire, this shirt-pocket survey of discovery features 150 illustrations. (CHN69, $12.95)

The Art and Culture of Japan •  Nelly Delay • ART & ARCHITECTURE • Lavishly illustrated, this handy pocket encyclopedia in the Discoveries series introduces the art, architecture and culture of Japan. With 165 archival and modern illustrations and a section of original documents. (JPN51, $12.95)

The Arts of China •  Michael Sullivan • ART & ARCHITECTURE • A lively survey of Chinese visual arts and culture through the ages, thoroughly illustrated and accessible. With a new chapter on the 20th Century and beyond, this fifth edition covers bronzes, ceramics, painting and architecture from the Neolithic to now. (CHN16, $39.95)

The Gardens of Japan •  Teiji Itoh • ART & ARCHITECTURE • This beautifully illustrated overview of the history and tradition of gardens features 75 color photographs and astute essays. With a guide to 50 popular and representative gardens. (JPN38, $60.00)

River Road to China, The Search for the Source of the Mekong, 1866-73 •  Milton Osborne • EXPLORATION • An excellent modern account of a 19th-century French expedition 4,000 miles from Vietnam and Cambodia into unknown regions of China in search of the source of the Mekong. (SEA29, $16.00)

The Inland Sea •  Donald Richie • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE • Richie's masterpiece, more than a travel account, is a beautiful reflection on all things Japanese by one of its most acute observers. (JPN13, $16.95)

The River's Tale, A Year on the Mekong •  Edward Gargan • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • A personal, probing chronicle of a 3,000 mile journey on the river from its source in China through Tibet, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia to the Mekong delta in Vietnam. (SEA33, $15.95)

The Sacred Willow, Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family •  Duong Van Mai Elliott • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • A vivid family saga, beginning with the author's great-grandfather, that captures the life and momentous history of Vietnam over the last 100 years. (VNM39, $24.99)

Travelers' Tales Japan •  Donald W. George •  Amy G. Carlson • ANTHOLOGY • A collection of stories and essays by famous writers that capture experiences traveling through Japan. With a range of styles and topics, this book is a great travel companion. (JPN48, $18.95)

Vietnam, A Traveler's Literary Companion •  John Balaban •  Nguyen Qui Duc • ANTHOLOGY • These 17 stories from Vietnam's finest modern writers explore the country's landscapes, mythology and changing traditions. (VNM04, $14.95)

Death of a Red Heroine •  Qui Xiaolong • MYSTERY • Marvelously evocative of Shanghai, and tremendously informative about China's transition towards a market economy in the 1990s, this award-winning debut of Inspector Chen of the Shanghai police is also a page-turner. Winner of several mystery awards. (CHN374, $14.00)

Empress Orchid •  Anchee Min • LITERATURE • In this novel of the glorious, decadent last days of 19th-Century Imperial China, Min (Red Azalea, Becoming Madame Mao) combines her tale of a young girl from the provinces who marries an emperor -- and then improbably becomes the Last Empress -- with a lovingly re-created portrait of life in the Forbidden City. (CHN267, $14.00)

The Quiet American •  Graham Greene • LITERATURE • FAVORITE • A classic, this is the most famous western work of fiction on Vietnam. Greene writes of a love triangle between a war correspondent, his Vietnamese consort and an optimistic young American during the last days of French rule. (VNM08, $15.00)

Wild Asia, Spirit of a Continent •  Mark Brazil •  Art Wolfe • NATURAL HISTORY • A lavishly illustrated survey of the wildlife and habitats of Asia, organized by bioregion. With 180 color photographs by Art Wolfe, Mitsuaki Iwago and others and text by contributors including Mark Brazil, the book covers the diverse plants, animals and landscapes across Asia, from the Himalayas to India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and the Russian Far East. (ASA33, $49.95)

A Photographic Guide to the Birds of China •  John MacKinnon •  Nigel Hicks • FIELD GUIDE • A slim pocket guide to 252 of the most conspicuous birds of China. (CHN29, $15.95)

Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia •  Mark Brazil • FIELD GUIDE • Brazil's comprehensive guide, featuring 234 color plates, includes Japan, Taiwan and the islands along with the adjacent areas of the Asia from Kamchatka to Korea. (JPN332, $39.95)

Birds of Southeast Asia •  Craig Robson • FIELD GUIDE • This compact, authoritative field guide features 140 stunning color plates covering 1,270 species. (SEA49, $35.00)

Here are some other groups of books that might interest you. Click to view a listing:

More Books


	These 6 items are available for $102, including U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXASA91)	E-mail Print
Select Item

	Fodor's Exploring China • Christopher Knowles GUIDEBOOK • 2007 • PAPER • 288 PAGES This excellent series has done it again with a stylish guidebook laced with maps and color photos that brings to life old and contemporary China. With separate sections on suggested places to visit, recommended walks, practical information including travel facts, the basics of communications, climate, money, electricity, photography, and transportation, descriptions of restaurants and hotels, ratings of sights, a language guide with Chinese phrases and numbers, a chronology of dynasties and historic events, even a small section on traditional arts and crafts, and chapters on the Silk Road, Beijing, and Xi'an, this is a complete and handy reference for any trip to China. (CHN25, $22.00)
	Insight Guide Vietnam • Scott Rutherford GUIDEBOOK • 2006 • PAPER • 381 PAGES A volume in the award-winning Insight series, this guide is noted for its wonderful photography, superb production and informative short essays. It is a highly recommended introduction to Vietnamese history and culture -- as well as a good overview of popular destinations. (VNM02, $23.95)
	In Praise of Shadows • Junichiro Tanizaki • Thomas J. Harper • Edward G. Seidensticker ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1980 • PAPER • 56 PAGES This essay by the great Japanese novelist, first published in 1933, offers tremendous insight into Japanese aesthetics. It's an earthy meditation on traditional Japanese art, architecture and design. Most illuminating. (JPN19, $9.95)
	Descending the Dragon, My Journey Down the Coast of Vietnam • Jon Bowermaster • Rob Howard TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2008 • PAPER • 144 PAGES Bowermaster and a team, including his long suffering foreign press monitor and photographers set forth from Hanoi, by kayak, to explore the long coast of Vietnam on an eight-week journey of discovery. (VNM121, $21.95)
	Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China • Jung Chang BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2003 • PAPER • 524 PAGES • FAVORITE A riveting tale of three generations spanning the end of Old China, Mao's regime and the Japanese occupation. Chang chronicles the enormous changes in China since 1929 through her family's story, which includes arrest during the Cultural Revolution, exile to the Sichuan wilderness and coming to terms with the bewildering state of China today. It's quite a tale, wonderfully told without a trace of rancor or bitterness. Living in London since 1978, Chang visits her mother back in China every year. You can imagine Chang with notebook in hand back in the family apartment absorbed in the stories of her much-loved mother. The book opens with the statement, "At the age of 15 my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general. It was 1929 and China was in chaos." (CHN04, $16.00)
	Asia Map • Kummerly and Frey MAP A map of all of Asia at a scale 1:12,000,000, including the Arabian Peninsula and featuring colorful topographical relief. One Side. 32x40 inches. (ASA12, $18.95)

	Ancient Angkor • Claude Jacques • Michael Freeman • GUIDEBOOK • Organized geographically, this indispensable guide to the monuments, architecture, culture, religion and history of Angkor features hundreds of color photographs, site plans and maps. (CBD15, $25.00)
	Exploring Kyoto, On Foot through the Ancient Capital • Judith Clancy • GUIDEBOOK • Featuring 30 well-crafted walking tours of neighborhoods, gardens and sanctuaries. (JPN26, $16.95)
	Eyewitness Guide Vietnam and Angkor Wat • Eyewitness Guides • GUIDEBOOK • An illustrated guide to the culture, history and attractions of Vietnam and Angkor, featuring site diagrams, maps and photographs. (VNM102, $25.00)
	Fodor's Hong Kong's 25 Best • Fodor's • GUIDEBOOK • A shirt-pocket guide and map. (HKG09, $11.95)
	Fodor's Shanghai's 25 Best • Fodor's • GUIDEBOOK • This shirt-pocket guide, with an excellent map of the city, includes a choice selection of attractions, shops and restaurants. (CHN60, $11.95)
	A Traveller's History of Japan • Richard Tames • HISTORY • A lively and concise narrative history of Japan and its transformation from Shinto, Shogun and Samurai traditions to 20th-century powerhouse. (JPN09, $14.95)
	China, A New History • John Fairbank • Merle Goldman • HISTORY • A sweeping history of China from the Paleolithic to Tiananmen, revised with a new chapter by Merle Goldman. A standard for history buffs. (CHN11, $22.50)
	China, Inc. How the Rise of the Next Superpower Changes America and the World • Ted C. Fishman • HISTORY • An economist and former commodities trader, Ted Fishman draws on statistics, case studies and interviews in this lively economic history and guide to understanding China's spectacular economic growth and future prospects. (CHN305, $16.00)
	Hiroshima • John Hersey • HISTORY • Never sensational, this classic by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Hersey, first published in 1946, puts a human face on the unthinkable. Hersey explores the tragedy through interviews with residents, scientists and politicians. (JPN20, $7.50)
	Hong Kong • Jan Morris • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • FAVORITE • A wonderful portrait of Hong Kong by one of our favorite writers. Morris enumerates the many personal pleasures of the city, deftly interweaving reportage, history and culture. (HKG02, $17.00)
	Understanding China, A Guide to China's Economy, History, and Politics • John Bryan Starr • HISTORY • John Bryan Starr, a professor of history and former director of the China Association, brings his classroom experience to this admirably brief, clearheaded introduction to contemporary China. (CHN196, $16.00)
	Understanding Vietnam • Neil Jamieson • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • Jamieson's ambitious primer addresses politics, social history, village life, structural renewal, literature and the arts, illuminating the Vietnamese worldview with insight and depth. It's the single best introduction to Vietnam. (VNM01, $25.95)
	Search for Ancient China • Corinne Debaine-Francfort • ARCHAEOLOGY • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE • With information on everything from jewelry to emperors' tombs, the Great Wall and the dazzling 400-year Han empire, this shirt-pocket survey of discovery features 150 illustrations. (CHN69, $12.95)
	The Art and Culture of Japan • Nelly Delay • ART & ARCHITECTURE • Lavishly illustrated, this handy pocket encyclopedia in the Discoveries series introduces the art, architecture and culture of Japan. With 165 archival and modern illustrations and a section of original documents. (JPN51, $12.95)
	The Arts of China • Michael Sullivan • ART & ARCHITECTURE • A lively survey of Chinese visual arts and culture through the ages, thoroughly illustrated and accessible. With a new chapter on the 20th Century and beyond, this fifth edition covers bronzes, ceramics, painting and architecture from the Neolithic to now. (CHN16, $39.95)
	The Gardens of Japan • Teiji Itoh • ART & ARCHITECTURE • This beautifully illustrated overview of the history and tradition of gardens features 75 color photographs and astute essays. With a guide to 50 popular and representative gardens. (JPN38, $60.00)
	River Road to China, The Search for the Source of the Mekong, 1866-73 • Milton Osborne • EXPLORATION • An excellent modern account of a 19th-century French expedition 4,000 miles from Vietnam and Cambodia into unknown regions of China in search of the source of the Mekong. (SEA29, $16.00)
	The Inland Sea • Donald Richie • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE • Richie's masterpiece, more than a travel account, is a beautiful reflection on all things Japanese by one of its most acute observers. (JPN13, $16.95)
	The River's Tale, A Year on the Mekong • Edward Gargan • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • A personal, probing chronicle of a 3,000 mile journey on the river from its source in China through Tibet, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia to the Mekong delta in Vietnam. (SEA33, $15.95)
	The Sacred Willow, Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family • Duong Van Mai Elliott • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • A vivid family saga, beginning with the author's great-grandfather, that captures the life and momentous history of Vietnam over the last 100 years. (VNM39, $24.99)
	Travelers' Tales Japan • Donald W. George • Amy G. Carlson • ANTHOLOGY • A collection of stories and essays by famous writers that capture experiences traveling through Japan. With a range of styles and topics, this book is a great travel companion. (JPN48, $18.95)
	Vietnam, A Traveler's Literary Companion • John Balaban • Nguyen Qui Duc • ANTHOLOGY • These 17 stories from Vietnam's finest modern writers explore the country's landscapes, mythology and changing traditions. (VNM04, $14.95)
	Death of a Red Heroine • Qui Xiaolong • MYSTERY • Marvelously evocative of Shanghai, and tremendously informative about China's transition towards a market economy in the 1990s, this award-winning debut of Inspector Chen of the Shanghai police is also a page-turner. Winner of several mystery awards. (CHN374, $14.00)
	Empress Orchid • Anchee Min • LITERATURE • In this novel of the glorious, decadent last days of 19th-Century Imperial China, Min (Red Azalea, Becoming Madame Mao) combines her tale of a young girl from the provinces who marries an emperor -- and then improbably becomes the Last Empress -- with a lovingly re-created portrait of life in the Forbidden City. (CHN267, $14.00)
	The Quiet American • Graham Greene • LITERATURE • FAVORITE • A classic, this is the most famous western work of fiction on Vietnam. Greene writes of a love triangle between a war correspondent, his Vietnamese consort and an optimistic young American during the last days of French rule. (VNM08, $15.00)
	Wild Asia, Spirit of a Continent • Mark Brazil • Art Wolfe • NATURAL HISTORY • A lavishly illustrated survey of the wildlife and habitats of Asia, organized by bioregion. With 180 color photographs by Art Wolfe, Mitsuaki Iwago and others and text by contributors including Mark Brazil, the book covers the diverse plants, animals and landscapes across Asia, from the Himalayas to India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and the Russian Far East. (ASA33, $49.95)
	A Photographic Guide to the Birds of China • John MacKinnon • Nigel Hicks • FIELD GUIDE • A slim pocket guide to 252 of the most conspicuous birds of China. (CHN29, $15.95)
	Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia • Mark Brazil • FIELD GUIDE • Brazil's comprehensive guide, featuring 234 color plates, includes Japan, Taiwan and the islands along with the adjacent areas of the Asia from Kamchatka to Korea. (JPN332, $39.95)
	Birds of Southeast Asia • Craig Robson • FIELD GUIDE • This compact, authoritative field guide features 140 stunning color plates covering 1,270 species. (SEA49, $35.00)