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CENTRAL & EAST ASIA

China, Tibet, and the Yangzi River

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Item EXCHN381. Buy these 6 items as a set for $106 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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Lonely Planet Discover China

by Lonely Planet

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2011
• PAPER
• 448 PAGES

Focusing on must-see and memorable places and experiences, this all color guide by the discerning editors at Lonely Planet, featuring hundreds of color photographs and maps, includes suggested tours and itineraries along with not-to-be-missed places to stay, eat, shop and see. (CHN674, $27.99)

My Journey to Lhasa

by Alexandra David-Neel

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2005
• PAPER
• 317 PAGES

Dressed as a humble pilgrim and traveling under the cover of night, the indomitable 55-year-old David-Neel and her young companion climbed mountains and tricked soldiers to ultimately reach Tibet's forbidden capital. Originally published in 1923, her account stands as a riveting portrait of early 20th-century Tibet. (TBT26, $14.99)

Understanding China

by John Bryan Starr

• HISTORY
• 2010
• PAPER
• 400 PAGES

The Yale professor's essential primer on the history, politics and economy of China. A succinct and refreshingly forthright best-selling guide, this third edition brings us right up to date with events in the rapidly evolving nation. (CHN196, $17.95)

Before the Deluge, The Vanishing World of the Yangtze's Three Gorges

by Deirdre Chetham

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2004
• PAPER
• 306 PAGES

A vivid portrait of the Three Gorges region of the Upper Yangtze River, by the director of the Asia Center at Harvard. Chetham offers a personal, detailed glimpse into the daily life along the river, its spectacular natural beauty and checkered history, including recent efforts to tame it. (CHN132, $26.00)

Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China

by Jung Chang

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2003
• PAPER
• 524 PAGES
• FAVORITE

In this 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. (CHN04, $16.99)

China Adventure Map

by National Geographic

• 2011
• MAP

A double-sided, full-color map of China, at a useful scale of 1:4,375,000, which shows roads and cities. Printed on tear- and water-reistant paper. (CHN06, $11.95)

 

Also Recommended

Tibet Map

by Gizi Map

• 2011
• MAP

A colorful map of Tibet at a scale of 1:2,000,000. (TBT17, $9.95)

Yangzi River Map

by Richard Perry Hayman

• 2003
• MAP

Double-sided, this full-color map guide features photos and 10 maps showing the Yangzi from the Himalayas to the East China Sea. (CHN177, $14.95)

Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook

by Hua-Yuan L. Mowry | Justin Ben-Adam Rudelson

• LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
• 2012
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

A handy phrasebook for basic Mandarin, focusing on pronunciation, grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler. (CHN72, $8.99)

Lonely Planet Tibetan Phrasebook

by Sandup Tsering

• LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
• 2008
• PAPER
• 254 PAGES

A brief guide with place names, pronunciation and common phrases. (TBT52, $8.99)

Three Gorges of the Yangtze River

by Raynor Shaw | Judy Bonavia

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2009
• PAPER
• 248 PAGES

Compact, illustrated and up-to-date, this Odyssey Guide focuses on the most popular 120-mile cruise from Chongqing to Wuhan. (CHN368, $22.95)

The Chinese Kitchen

by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo

• FOOD
• 1999
• HARD COVER
• 452 PAGES

An authoritative compendium of Chinese recipes and food-oriented cultural practices. Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's cookbook doubles as an introduction to China itself. (CHN134, $39.95)

China Shakes the World

by James Kynge

• HISTORY
• 2007
• PAPER
• 270 PAGES

China Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, Beijing-based Kynge brings experience and perspective to this very readable, enlightening report on the transformation of China today. (CHN353, $14.95)

Essential Tibetan Buddhism

by Robert Thurman

• RELIGION
• 1996
• PAPER
• 317 PAGES

The foremost Western scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, Thurman has chosen well from that tradition's sacred literature and helpfully includes suggested further reading, explanatory notes and a directory of sacred sites. (TBT15, $14.99)

Oracle Bones

by Peter Hessler

• HISTORY
• 2007
• PAPER
• 512 PAGES

In this fine portrait of tumult and tradition, Hessler (River Town) finds clues to modern China's realities in the personal stories of peasants, scholars, day laborers and activists. (CHN316, $15.99)

Shanghai, The Rise and Fall of the Decadent City 1842-1949

by Stella Dong

• HISTORY
• 2001
• PAPER
• 318 PAGES

A riveting portrait of "the most pleasure-mad, rapacious, corrupt, strife-ridden, licentious, squalid and decadent city in the world." (CHN128, $15.99)

The Art of Happiness, A Handbook for Living

by Dalai Lama XIV

• RELIGION
• 1998
• HARD COVER
• 336 PAGES

Tenth anniversary edition. Drawing on Buddhist tradition and teaching, His Holiness the Dalai Lama shows how to confront negative emotions, stresses, and obstacles of everyday life in order to find the source of inner peace. (TBT124, $25.95)

The Open Road, The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

by Pico Iyer

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2009
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES

Travel writer Pico Iyer, who has known the Dalai Lama since his days as a graduate student in Britain, draws on his long association with the man and his ideas for this remarkable portrait of the Tibetan people and the aspirations of their leader. He includes chapters on daily life in Dharamsala, travels with the Dalai Lama and incisive commentary on the history and future of Tibet. (TBT118, $15.95)

Tibet, An Inner Journey

by Matthieu Ricard

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2012
• PAPER
• 232 PAGES

Ricard draws on his long association with the region and Buddhism for this collection of 191 vivid color photographs of the people and landscapes of Kham, or Eastern Tibet. (TBT113, $19.95)

Trespassers on the Roof of the World

by Peter Hopkirk

• HISTORY
• 1995
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES

Hopkirk's spellbinding history of the uninvited exploration of Tibet from the 19th century to the present, including a fantastic array of Victorian adventurers. His wild tale has as its centerpiece the 1949-1951 invasion by China. (TBT08, $16.00)

Art of Tibet

by Robert Fisher

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 1997
• PAPER
• 224 PAGES

A concise survey of the culture and religion of Tibet as expressed through its art. With 200 illustrations of monasteries, painting and sculpture throughout the country. (TBT13, $21.95)

Search for Ancient China

by Corinne Debaine-Francfort

• ARCHAEOLOGY
• 1999
• PAPER
• 160 PAGES

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, $15.95)

The Arts of China

by Michael Sullivan

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2008
• PAPER
• 352 PAGES

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 River at the Center of the World

by Simon Winchester

• EXPLORATION
• 2004
• PAPER
• 410 PAGES
• FAVORITE

Winchester writes about the character of the Yangtze and the people and places along its banks with easy grace in this absorbing portrait of the great river flowing through the heart of China. (CHN31, $17.00)

Mao Zedong

by Jonathan Spence

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2006
• PAPER
• 192 PAGES

Yale Sinologist, writer and historian Spence tracks the life of the architect of the People's Republic from his provincial upbringing to his savage three-decade rule. (CHN66, $14.00)

Seven Years in Tibet

by Heinrich Harrer

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2009
• PAPER
• 352 PAGES

First published in 1953, this is the riveting account of a young Austrian adventurer and mountaineer who became tutor to the Dalai Lama. (TBT02, $14.95)

Sky Train, Tibetan Women on the Edge of History

by Sam Canyon

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2009
• PAPER
• 278 PAGES

Winner of the 2010 Pen American Center Open Book Award. The Dalai Lama provides the forward for this affecting odyssey, which artfully mixes stories of four remarkable Tibetan women with the author's first visit to Tibet as a youth and return thirty years later for the inauguration of the Beijing-Lhasa high speed train. (TBT140, $26.95)

To a Mountain in Tibet

by Colin Thubron

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

The intrepid, soulful Colin Thubron journeys from Nepal to Kailas, the revered mountain, "source of the universe, created from cosmic waters and the mind of Brahma" in his most revealing book yet. A New York Times Notable Book and Longitude favorite of 2011. (TBT134, $15.99)

A Single Pebble

by John Hersey

• LITERATURE
• 1989
• PAPER
• 181 PAGES

A haunting novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winner. Hersey writes, with deceptive simplicity, of an American engineer looking for a dam site on the Yangtze. Think Hemingway on the Yangtze. (CHN03, $15.00)

Empress Orchid

by Anchee Min

• LITERATURE
• 2005
• PAPER
• 346 PAGES

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 Good Earth

by Pearl Buck

• LITERATURE
• 1994
• PAPER
• 379 PAGES

The modern classic that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1931. Drawing heavily on Buck's personal experience as a young newlywed in rural China, it is the plainly told story of a poor farmer and his stalwart wife. (CHN15, $16.00)

Waiting

by Ha Jin

• LITERATURE
• 2000
• PAPER
• 308 PAGES

A spare, haunting story of a military doctor who tries for 18 years to divorce his peasant wife so he can marry a more sophisticated nurse at his hospital. Greatly evocative of quotidian life in China during the Cultural Revolution and after. (CHN80, $16.00)

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