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China & the Yangtze   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE
Order an essential package, and we'll ship any additional items for free. We offer a mix of guidebooks, maps, field guides, novels and books on art, architecture, history, nature and culture.

Essential Books These 6 items are available for $92, including
U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXCHN400)
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Fodor's Exploring China  •  Christopher Knowles
GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES • BEST SELLER
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)
  Fodor's Exploring China
Search for Ancient China  •  Corinne Debaine-Francfort
ARCHAEOLOGY •  1999 •  PAPER  • 160 PAGES
With information on everything from jewelry to emperors' tombs, this pocketsize, illustrated encyclopedia covers a wide scope of discoveries in China from prehistory to the dazzling 400-year Han empire. The concise text is complemented by 150 illustrations, most in color.The book includes sections on the Great Wall, terracotta warriors (not discovered in Xi'an until 1974!) and other well known monuments. (CHN69, $12.95)
  Search for Ancient China
Understanding China, A Guide to China's Economy, History, and Politics  •  John Bryan Starr
HISTORY •  2001 •  PAPER  • 356 PAGES
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. Revised edition. (CHN196, $16.00)
  Understanding China, A Guide to China's Economy, History, and Politics
Odyssey Guide Three Gorges of the Yangtze River  •  Raynor Shaw
GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES • NEW
Compact, illustrated and up-to-date, this detailed guide focuses on the 120-mile-long Three Gorges section of the Yangtzi, including Chongsing, Yichang and Wuhan. With 12 color maps and diagrams. (CHN368, $21.95)
  Odyssey Guide 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, $16.00)
  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
 

Related Categories
Yangzi River Map  •  Richard Perry Hayman    •  A full-color, comprehensive map of the Yangzi River and Three Gorges for the traveler, at a scale of 1:1,000,000. Features 10 maps, color photos, and shows the river from the Himalayas to the East China Sea. (CHN177, $14.95)
 
 
Culture Smart! China: A Quick Guide to Customs And Etiquette  •  Kathy Flower   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A concise and practical guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (CHN434, $9.95)
 
 
Eyewitness Guide Beijing and Shanghai  •   Eyewitness Guides   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This superbly illustrated guide covers the top attractions in two of China's most fascinating cities. (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. (CHN60, $11.95)
 
 
Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook  •  Hua-Yuan L. Mowry  •  Justin Ben-Adam Rudelson   • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS  •  A handy phrasebook for Mandarin basics. This guide focuses on pronunciation, basic 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, $23.95)
 
 
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, $19.99)
 
 
Beyond the Great Wall  •  Jeffrey Alford  •  Naomi Duguid   • FOOD  •  The globe-trotting husband-and-wife team weave their own tales of travel with politics, commentary, carefully documented recipes and gorgeous photographs for this sumptuous overview of the food and culture of Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Yunnan and other far-off regions of ethnically diverse China. A Gournet Cook Book Club selection. (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)
 
 
China  •  Paula Regan   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A lavishly illustrated overview of China and its people, this marvelously produced compilation features stunning double-page photographs of mountains, plains, rivers and forests, an excellent illustrated timeline, archival illustrations and cultural highlights. (CHN453, $40.00)
 
 
China Road  •  Rob Gifford   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  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 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, $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)
 
 
Life and Death in Shanghai  •  Nien Cheng   • HISTORY  •  A plainly told account of the horrors that took place during the Cultural Revolution in Shanghai, from an author who was a six-year political prisoner. (CHN42, $16.00)
 
 
Oracle Bones, A Journey Between China's Past and Present  •  Peter Hessler   • HISTORY • NEW  •  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, $15.95)
 
 
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, $15.00)
 
 
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, $36.99)
 
 
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, $12.95)
 
 
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, much of it was built in the 1600s) with fresh insight and wit. (CHN308, $15.00)
 
 
The Great Wall, From Beginning to End  •  Michael Yamashita  •  William Lindesay   • HISTORY  •  Lindesay's informative text accompanies 160 photographs by Yamashita, who spent a year photographing along the 4,000-mile expanse. (CHN451, $29.95)
 
 
The Arts of China  •  Michael Sullivan   • ART & ARCHITECTURE • COMING IN NOVEMBER  •  A comprehensive survey of Chinese visual arts and culture through the ages. It's a lively overview, thoroughly illustrated and accessible, of bronzes, ceramics, painting and architecture, from the Neolithic to the modern era. (CHN16, $39.95)
 
 
Mao Zedong  •  Jonathan Spence   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  A biographical account of Mao Zedong by the Yale sinologist, writer and historian, tracking the life of the Chinese ruler from his provincial upbringing through his powerful reign. (CHN66, $13.00)
 
 
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, $14.95)
 
 
The River at the Center of the World  •  Simon Winchester   • EXPLORATION • FAVORITE  •  Winchester writes about the character of Yangtze, and the people and places along its banks, with an easy grace in this remarkable portrait of the great river that is at the symbolic and literal heart of China. (CHN31, $16.00)
 
 
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, this collection takes the reader from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to the mountains and streams of West Hunan, the silk-worm raising country of Zhejiang and the high plateau of western Sichuan. (CHN520, $14.95)
 
 
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, $12.95)
 
 
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, $13.00)
 
 
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 • COMING IN NOVEMBER  •  Wagenstein's novel chronicles the flight of four refugees from Nazi Germany to Shanghai, where they are immersed into both the glamour and devestating 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 romatic 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, $14.95)
 
 
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 1300 species of birds. Contains introductory chapters on the history of ornithology in China, biogeography, and conservation. (CHN85, $116.25)
 
 
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)
 
 
Chinese Wildlife, A Visitor's Guide  •  Martin Walters   • FIELD GUIDE  •  A compact introduction to birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, and plants found from the Tibetan plateau to the deserts, tropical forests, and mountains. Featuring a very good selection of 200 large color photographs. (CHN440, $26.99)
 
 


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

Xian & the Chinese Silk Road
More Books
For Kids
Worth Looking For
Beijing
Yunnan
Shanghai
Sichuan & China's Giant Pandas
Hong Kong

 



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