SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS
China: Timeless Traditions   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

Here's a page from Longitude, the specialty bookseller for travelers. To order online, and to see the latest, most comprehensive selection of books and maps, go to http://reading.longitudebooks.com/O41188. You may also call 800-342-2164 to order or request a catalog.


Essential Books These 6 items are available for $102, including
U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXCHN516)		  
Eyewitness Guide China  •  Eyewitness Guides
GUIDEBOOK •  2010 •  PAPER  • 672 PAGES
A hefty, richly illustrated guide to sites, attractions and places throughout China. With excellent maps and hundreds of full color photographs and site diagrams. A 50-page appendix covers where to stay, eat, draink and shop. The guide covers all China from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to Sichuan, Yunnan, Zinjiang and Tibet. (CHN242, $30.00)		   Eyewitness Guide China
China Road  •  Rob Gifford
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES
On the road from from Shanghai west to the Gobi and China's distant border with Kazakhstan, Gifford writes with warmth and affection of his many encounters along fabled Route 312 with fellow travelers, truckers, whores and ordinary folk. (CHN433, $17.00)		   China Road
Mao Zedong  •  Jonathan Spence
BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2006 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES
A masterful short biography in the "Penguin Lives" series, this text by Chinese historian Jonathan Spence tracks the life of the enigmatic Chinese ruler from his provincial upbringing to his powerful reign. Spence incorporates much new information in this portrait. (CHN66, $14.00)		   Mao Zedong
Three Gorges of the Yangtze River  •  Raynor Shaw  •  Judy Bonavia
GUIDEBOOK •  2009 •  PAPER  • 248 PAGES
Compact, illustrated and up-to-date, this Odyssey Guide focuses on the 120-mile-long Three Gorges section of the Yangtzi, including Chongqing, Yichang and Wuhan. With 12 color maps and diagrams. (CHN368, $22.95)		   Three Gorges of the Yangtze River
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, $16.99)		   Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China
Central China Map  •  MapLink
2006 •  MAP
This full, color foldup map, with a detailed index on the reverse, shows the most visited sites in China -- from Beijing and Shanghai to Chendu, Chongqing and the Three Gorges to Xi'an and Lanzhou -- at a scale of 1:2,000.000. It's almost twice as detailed as our best map of all of China. (CHN431, $9.95)		   Central China Map



Also Recommended

Yangzi River Map  •  Richard Perry Hayman    •  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)
 		  
Culture Smart! China  •  Kathy Flower   • GUIDEBOOK  •  Take along this handy guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (CHN434, $9.95)
 		  
Eyewitness Guide Beijing and Shanghai  •  Eyewitness Guides   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This superb guide features color photography, excellent maps and a neighborhood-by-neighborhood overview of each city. (CHN385, $23.00)
 		  
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, ideal for a short visit. (CHN60, $11.99)
 		  
Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook  •  Hua-Yuan L. Mowry  •  Justin Ben-Adam Rudelson   • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS  •  A handy phrasebook for basic Mandarin, focusing on pronunciation, grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler. (CHN72, $8.99)
 		  
Odyssey Guide Xi'an, Shaanxi & the Terracotta Army  •  Kevin Bishop   • GUIDEBOOK  •  With color photographs, insightful essays on culture and history, site plans and places of interest in and around China's ancient capital. (CHN34, $24.95)
 		  
Rough Guide Shanghai  •  Simon Lewis   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A compact, practical guide to the city, jammed with maps, site plans, suggested sightseeing and recommended restaurants and hotels. (CHN488, $27.50)
 		  
Beyond the Great Wall  •  Jeffrey Alford  •  Naomi Duguid   • FOOD  •  The globe-trotting duo weave tales of travel with contemporary politics, commentary, carefully documented recipes and stunning photographs for this sumptuous overview of the food and culture of Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Yunnan and other far-off regions of ethnically diverse China. (CHN475, $40.00)
 		  
The Chinese Kitchen  •  Eileen Yin-Fei Lo   • FOOD  •  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)
 		  
Before the Deluge, The Vanishing World of the Yangtze's Three Gorges  •  Deirdre Chetham   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  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, $25.00)
 		  
China Shakes the World  •  James Kynge   • HISTORY  •  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)
 		  
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, $26.50)
 		  
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, $17.00)
 		  
Life and Death in Shanghai  •  Nien Cheng   • HISTORY  •  A plainly told account of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution in Shanghai, from an author who was a six-year political prisoner. (CHN42, $17.95)
 		  
Oracle Bones  •  Peter Hessler   • HISTORY  •  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)
 		  
Postcards from Tomorrow Square  •  James Fallows   • HISTORY  •  Ranging from politics to society and business, these richly observed, candid essays capture the complexity, tumult and promise of modern China. A correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, where these essays first appeared, Fallows moved with his wife to China in 2006. (CHN559, $15.00)
 		  
Shanghai, The Rise and Fall of the Decadent City 1842-1949  •  Stella Dong   • HISTORY  •  A riveting portrait of "the most pleasure-mad, rapacious, corrupt, strife-ridden, licentious, squalid and decadent city in the world." (CHN128, $15.99)
 		  
The Cambridge Illustrated History of China  •  Patricia Buckley Ebrey   • HISTORY  •  A concise, handsomely illustrated survey of Chinese history. Organized chronologically, this book marches confidently through 8,000 years of Chinese civilization, balancing social issues with politics and culture. (CHN79, $46.99)
 		  
The Forbidden City, Center of Imperial China  •  Gilles Beguin  •  Dominique Morel   • HISTORY  •  This slim volume is packed with maps, archival photographs and illustrations. With a useful chronology and a carefully chosen selection of writings over the ages, it's an indispensable guide to the Forbidden City and the history of Imperial China. (CHN32, $15.95)
 		  
The Great Wall, China Against the World, 1000 BC - 2000 AD  •  Julia Lovell   • HISTORY  •  The Who, Why and Wherefore of the Great Wall, this marvelous history demolishes myths (no, the wall is not a continuous structure of great antiquity, as much of it was built in the 1600s) with fresh insight and wit. (CHN308, $15.00)
 		  
The Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of China  •  William Lindesay   • HISTORY  •  Lindesay augments colorful illustrations and photographs with detailed captions in this concise visual overview of the extraordinary tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi, First Emperor of China. (CHN126, $12.95)
 		  
Understanding China  •  John Bryan Starr   • HISTORY  •  The Yale professor brings us up to date in this third edition of his succinct and refreshingly forthright best-selling guide to China's economy, history and politics. (CHN196, $17.95)
 		  
Search for Ancient China  •  Corinne Debaine-Francfort   • ARCHAEOLOGY  •  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  •  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 Great Wall, From Beginning to End  •  Michael Yamashita  •  William Lindesay   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  Lindesay's informative text accompanies 160 photographs by Yamashita, who spent a year photographing along the 4,000-mile expanse. (CHN451, $29.95)
 		  
Mr. China, A Memoir  •  Tim Clissold   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  An excellent portrait of contemporary China. Clissold writes with humor and insight in this entertaining account of his encounters with the Chinese and the Chinese way of doing business. (CHN306, $14.99)
 		  
The River at the Center of the World  •  Simon Winchester   • EXPLORATION • FAVORITE  •  Winchester writes about the character of Yangtze and people and places along its banks with easy grace in this absorbing portrait of the great river flowing through the heart of China. (CHN31, $16.00)
 		  
A Single Pebble  •  John Hersey   • LITERATURE  •  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, $14.00)
 		  
China, A Traveler's Literary Companion  •  Kirk Denton   • ANTHOLOGY  •  An introduction both to China's finest modern writers and its diverse cultures, concerns and landscapes, organized geographically. (CHN520, $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, Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police must find the murderer of a National Model Worker in this award-winning debut. The series continues with A Loyal Character Dancer (CHN412), (CHN374, $14.95)
 		  
Empire of the Sun  •  J. G. Ballard   • LITERATURE  •  Ballard's widely acclaimed novel of an English boy in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation, drawn from his own experiences. It's a powerful tale of the upheaval and trauma of war. (CHN265, $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)
 		  
Farewell Shanghai  •  Angel Wagenstein   • LITERATURE  •  Wagenstein's novel chronicles the flight of four refugees from Nazi Germany to Shanghai, where they are immersed into both the glamour and devastating poverty of the city. (CHN516, $13.95)
 		  
The Good Earth  •  Pearl Buck   • LITERATURE  •  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, $15.00)
 		  
The Last Chinese Chef  •  Nicole Mones   • LITERATURE  •  Mones' delectable third novel pairs a fast-paced romantic plot with insight into the meaning and preparation of classical Chinese dishes. (CHN498, $13.95)
 		  
Waiting  •  Ha Jin   • LITERATURE  •  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, $15.00)
 		  
Wild China, The Hidden Wonders of the World's Most Enigmatic Land  •  Phil Chapman   • NATURAL HISTORY  •  This lavishly illustrated companion book to the BBC series celebrates the diversity of ecosystems, habitats and wildlife of China. (CHN515, $29.95)
 		  
A Field Guide to the Birds of China  •  John MacKinnon  •  Karen Phillipps   • FIELD GUIDE  •  A comprehensive field guide to the birds of China, featuring 128 color plates illustrating 1,300 species of birds. Contains introductory chapters on the history of ornithology in China, biogeography, and conservation. (CHN85, $124.00)
 		  
Chinese Wildlife  •  Martin Walters   • FIELD GUIDE  •  This compact introduction to birds, mammals, reptiles, insects and plants found from the Tibetan plateau to the deserts, tropical forests and mountains includes 200 color photographs. (CHN440, $26.99)
 		  
 
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