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Classic China and Tibet

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Enrich your travels with reading! Here's a hand-picked list prepared for your journey in conjunction with the book experts at Longitude.

Essential Reading

Item EXCHN548. Buy these 4 items as a set for $72 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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My Journey to Lhasa

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)

The Forbidden City, Center of Imperial China

The Forbidden City, Center of Imperial China

by Gilles Beguin | Dominique Morel

  • HISTORY
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 144 PAGES

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)

Giant Pandas

Giant Pandas

by John Seidensticker | Susan Lumpkin

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 186 PAGES

An informative, family-friendly overview of the natural history, conservation and habitats of Central China's giant pandas. With 200 color photographs, many taken in Sichuan. (CHN456, $19.95)

Insight Guide China

Insight Guide China

by Manfred Morganstern

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2013
  • PAPER
  • 411 PAGES

This lavishly illustrated guide includes essays on the history, politics and culture of China with hundreds of color photographs, providing a concise, informative introduction to the country. (CHN05, $24.99)

 
Tibet Map

Tibet Map


by Gizi Map

  • 2011
  • MAP

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

Culture Smart! China

Culture Smart! China


by Kathy Flower

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 168 PAGES

Take along this handy guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (CHN434, $9.95)

Eyewitness Top 10 Beijing

Eyewitness Top 10 Beijing


by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 128 PAGES

A compact, illustrated guide in the popular series, featuring favorite attractions in Beijing. (CHN427, $14.00)

Fodor's Shanghai's 25 Best

Fodor's Shanghai's 25 Best


by Fodor's

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 96 PAGES

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

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)

Odyssey Guide Xi'an, Shaanxi & the Terracotta Army

Odyssey Guide Xi'an, Shaanxi & the Terracotta Army


by Kevin Bishop

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

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)

Three Gorges of the Yangtze River

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)

Essential Tibetan Buddhism

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)

Life and Death in Shanghai

Life and Death in Shanghai


by Nien Cheng

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 560 PAGES

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

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)

Postcards from Tomorrow Square

Postcards from Tomorrow Square


by James Fallows

  • HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 288 PAGES

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)

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

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 Enduring Civilization

Tibet, An Enduring Civilization


by Francoise Pommaret

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 160 PAGES

This pocket-size encyclopedia, packed with hundreds of full-color illustrations and photos, highlights the culture and history of Tibet. Pommaret, who has written widely on the Himalayas, devotes a section to Tibet today, titled Invasion and Colonization. (TBT69, $12.95)

Trespassers on the Roof of the World

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)

Understanding China

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)

The River at the Center of the World

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)

China Road

China Road


by Rob Gifford

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

NPR's Gifford writes with warmth and affection of his encounters with truckers, small farmers and regular folk along fabled Route 312 from Shanghai to the border of Kazakhstan. (CHN433, $17.00)

China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors

China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors


by Frances Wood

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 209 PAGES

Wood's astute biography -- enlivened with woodcuts, engravings, poetry and recipes from the period -- is a rich introduction to Emperor Qin Shihuangdi (258-210 BC) and his times. (CHN492, $24.95)

Country Driving

Country Driving


by Peter Hessler

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 480 PAGES

Opening with an eventful 7,000-mile road trip across northern China, Peter Hessler (River Town, Oracle Bones) shows the absurdity, humor and hope of China in this latest portrait of a nation catapulted into the modern world. (CHN600, $15.99)

Dreaming in Chinese, Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language

Dreaming in Chinese, Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language


by Deborah Fallows

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

A linguist, living in Shanghai and Beijing with her journalist-husband James (Postcards from Tomorrow Square) the exuberant Deborah Fallows illuminates the Chinese worldview through language in playful, anecdotal essays, documenting her own missteps and growing understanding with self-deprecating humor. (CHN648, $14.00)

Mao Zedong

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)

Red Dust, A Path Through China

Red Dust, A Path Through China


by Ma Jian | Flora Drew

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 324 PAGES

An astounding memoir by an urban poet, painter and writer on the road to Tibet. A vagabond, rebel and Buddhist, Jian abandons his Beijing life for a 3-year southwestern journey through Tibet, Burma and Guizhou Province. (CHN150, $16.00)

River Town, Two Years on the Yangtze

River Town, Two Years on the Yangtze


by Peter Hessler

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 432 PAGES

Hessler's compelling, personal story of life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fuling, where foreigners are a curiosity, explores the culture, traditions and ideas of an isolated world. (CHN125, $19.99)

Seven Years in Tibet

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)

Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China

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)

A Single Pebble

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)

China, A Traveler's Literary Companion

China, A Traveler's Literary Companion


by Kirk Denton

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 231 PAGES

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

Death of a Red Heroine


by Xiaolong Qui

  • MYSTERY
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 464 PAGES

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, $15.95)

Waiting

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)

The Last Panda

The Last Panda


by George Schaller

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 291 PAGES

Naturalist George Schaller spent almost five years in the wild studying the panda in the 1980s. This book is both his description of the great panda in nature, and an eloquent plea for how to save the species. (CHN24, $17.50)

Chinese Wildlife

Chinese Wildlife


by Martin Walters

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

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)

More Recommendations

Here are some other groups of books that might be of interest

Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.