Beijing

by Damian Harper

GUIDEBOOK
2009
PAPER
272 PAGES

This practical guide to Beijing features maps, an overview of culture, history and nature, and a good deal of nuts-and-bolts information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. There's even a section on the locally spoken dialect of Mandarin. (CHN47, $19.99)

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)

The Last Days of Old Beijing, Tales from the New City

by Michael Meyer

BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
2009
PAPER
368 PAGES

Meyer's lovely memoir of the hutong (ancient lane), where he taught school, captures the rhythms, traditions and spirit of the alleyways, gardens and courtyard houses of Beijing's traditional neighborhoods south of Tiananmen. (CHN493, $16.00)

Beijing Map

by Borch Maps

2007
MAP

This laminated, folded map of Beijing, with a blowup of the city center at a scale of 1:24,000, notes 2008 Olympic venues. With detailed inset maps of the Beijing Metro, tops sights, key attractions, an index and Chinese characters for key place names. (CHN199, $8.95)