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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.

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Time Out Shanghai

Time Out Shanghai

by Time Out

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 310 PAGES

An up-to-date guide on what to do and where to go by the people who publish Time Out Magazine. (CHN309, $19.95)

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

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)

Understanding China

Understanding China

by John Bryan Starr

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 400 PAGES

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)

Shanghai Map

Shanghai Map

by Periplus Maps

  • MAP

A map of Shanghai, at a scale of 1:15,000. Main streets shown in both English and Chinese (good for directing taxis!). (CHN90, $8.95)

 
Eyewitness Guide Beijing and Shanghai

Eyewitness Guide Beijing and Shanghai


by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

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 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
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

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

Lonely Planet Shanghai

Lonely Planet Shanghai


by Bradley Mayhew

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 276 PAGES

A practical guide to Shanghai featuring maps and detailed information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. With a few color photographs and excellent travel information. (CHN91, $21.99)

Wallpaper City Guide Shanghai

Wallpaper City Guide Shanghai


by Wallpaper Magazine

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER

A stylish, thin (it fits in your back pocket) city guide compiled by the design magazine Wallpaper's local reporters. Well-organized, with chapter tabs, many photographs and of-the-moment recommendations. (CHN361, $9.95)

The Chinese Kitchen

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)

A Traveller's History of China

A Traveller's History of China


by Stephen G. Haw

  • HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 310 PAGES

An admirably brief, lively history of China from early origins to today, remarkably clear and necessarily condensed. With a historical gazetteer, chronology and list of dynasties. (CHN43, $14.95)

Bund Shanghai, China Faces West


by Peter Hibbard

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER

Hibbard focuses on the vibrant 1920s and 1930s in this social history and guide to the the exquisite Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Art Deco Cathay Hotel and other landmarks. (CHN704, $24.95)

China Wakes, The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power

China Wakes, The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power


by Nicholas Kristoff | Sheryl WuDunn

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 501 PAGES

The authors journeyed from Tibet to Tiananmen, reporting in depth on contemporary China and its cultural dissidents. An engrossing portrait of a nation struggling to hold onto tradition while modernizing its economy. (CHN33, $16.95)

China, A New History

China, A New History


by John Fairbank | Merle Goldman

  • HISTORY
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 546 PAGES

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)

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)

Shanghai Modern, The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945


by Leo Ou-Fan Lee

  • HISTORY
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

A scholarly look at Chinese urban culture in pre-war Shanghai. (CHN64, $34.00)

The Search for Modern China

The Search for Modern China


by Jonathan Spence

  • HISTORY
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 992 PAGES

A sweeping history of China including events until 1999, geared fo the general reader. With maps, charts and black-and-white photographs. (CHN98, $59.65)

Search for Ancient China

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)

Shanghai, Art of the City


by Michael Knight | Dany Chan

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2010
  • HARD COVER
  • 248 PAGES

Drawing from oil paintings, deco furniture, rugs, posters, fashion, movie clips and contemporary installations, this book documents the growth of Shanghai through its dynamic visual culture. Issued in conjunction with the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and an accompanying exhibition in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. (CHN610, $49.00)

The Arts of China

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)

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)

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong


by Jonathan Spence

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 192 PAGES

Yale Sinologist, writer and historian Spence tracks the life of the Chinese ruler from his provincial upbringing through his powerful rule. (CHN66, $14.00)

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)

Death of a Red Heroine

Death of a Red Heroine


by Qui Xiaolong

  • 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, $14.95)

Farewell Shanghai

Farewell Shanghai


by Angel Wagenstein

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 400 PAGES

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)

Flashman and the Dragon

Flashman and the Dragon


by George MacDonald Fraser

  • LITERATURE
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

The eighth entry in Fraser's popular series of 19th-century adventures starring Harry Flashman, the womanizing rogue and international troublemaker, set in 1860s China. In this installment, our reluctant hero is hoodwinked into joining the Teiping Rebellion, participates in the Seige of Nanking and ends up as a plaything of the Dowager Empress at the Summer Palace. (CHN116, $15.00)

Shanghai Girls

Shanghai Girls


by Lisa See

  • LITERATURE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

From the author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love comes this stunning novel about two sisters who leave glamorous, shady Shanghai across China to find new lives in 1930s Los Angeles. (CHN561, $15.00)

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai


by Wang Anyi | Michael Berry

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 440 PAGES

Evocatively set in post-World War II Shanghai, this novel follows the adventures of Wang Qiyao over four tumultuous decades. A girl born of the longtong -- Shanghai's crowded, working-class neighborhoods -- Wang sees fame as Miss Shanghai, indulges in the decadent pleasures of the pre-liberation city and emerges as an icon of Old Shanghai. (CHN570, $19.95)

Empire of the Sun


by Steven Spielberg

  • 2005
  • DVD

Spielberg's gripping coming-of-age drama, based on Ballard's novel, illuminates Shanghai during the Japanese occupation. (CHN586, $14.97)

Farewell My Concubine


by Kaige Chen

  • 1993
  • DVD

The moving story of a fifty-year friendship between two men who meet as children in the Peking Opera. (CHN226, $14.99)

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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.