China Private Journey   |   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/O38954. You may also call 800-342-2164 to order or request a catalog.


Essential Books These 5 items are available for $79, including
U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXCHN523)		  
Odyssey Guide Guizhou Province  •  Gina Corrigan
GUIDEBOOK •  2002 •  PAPER
An in-depth guide to the history, culture and peoples of Guizhou province, featuring color photographs, excellent maps and a very good overview of the ethnic minorities of the region. Corrigan, who has published widely on the Miao and the textiles of Southwest China, covers the textile arts and costume, jewelry, music and festivals in detail. (CHN321, $23.95)		  
The Forbidden City  •  Geremie R. Barme  •  Mary Beard
HISTORY •  2012 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES
A new and original history of Beijing's Forbidden City in the Wonders of the World series, stripping away mystique and mythology to deliver a clear portrait of the Beijing's cultural, political and architectural past. (CHN468, $14.95)		   The Forbidden City
Understanding China  •  John Bryan Starr
HISTORY •  2010 •  PAPER  • 400 PAGES
Yale professor John Bryan Starr brings us up to date in this just published third edition (the last one was ten years old) of his succinct and refreshingly forthright best-selling guide to China's economy, history and politics. With all the frothing over the role of China in the world, this is the essential primer. (CHN196, $17.95)		   Understanding China
Red Dust, A Path Through China  •  Ma Jian  •  Flora Drew
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 324 PAGES
An astounding, thoughtful memoir of an urban poet, painter and writer on the road to Tibet in the mid-1980s. At low ebb personally, and censured by his propaganda work unit, 30-year-old Ma Jian abandons his disintegrating life in Beijing for a remarkable three-year trek south and west to Guizhou province, Burma and Tibet. This first-rate account offers a vibrant portrait of Deng's People's Republic of China, and an extremely useful testimonial to the plight of Chinese artists therein. With kudos by Barbara Crossette, Jonathan Spence and others, this first book by Jian, who now lives in London, is drawing a lot of attention. (CHN150, $16.00)		   Red Dust, A Path Through China
China Adventure Map  •  National Geographic
2011 •  MAP
A double-sided, full-color map of China, at a useful scale of 1:4,375,000, which shows roads and cities. Printed on tear- and water-reistant paper. Two Sides. 39x27 inches. (CHN06, $11.95)		   China Adventure Map



Also Recommended

Beijing Map  •  Borch Maps    •  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)
 		  
Shanghai Map  •  Periplus Maps    •  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)
 		  
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)
 		  
Eyewitness Guide China  •  Eyewitness Guides   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This hefty illustrated guide to sites, attractions and places throughout China features excellent maps and hundreds of color photographs and site diagrams. (CHN242, $30.00)
 		  
Lonely Planet Beijing  •  Damian Harper   • GUIDEBOOK  •  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)
 		  
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)
 		  
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, A Photographic Journey Through the Middle Kingdom  •  Gu Guo   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  This sweet miniature edition of the oversized original includes the same 243 dramatic color photos and 12 panoramic foldout pages, showing China's monuments and landscapes. (CHN627, $17.50)
 		  
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)
 		  
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 Promise of the Revolution  •  Daniel B. Wright   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  Subtitled "Stories of Fulfillment and Struggle in China's Hinterland," this book depicts the hardships and few economic triumphs of the people of Guizhou, a severely impoverished region of China. (CHN258, $29.95)
 		  
Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China  •  Stevan Harrell   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A scholarly ethnography of the peoples of Southwest China, including the Nuosu (Yi), Prmi, Naze, and Han. With detailed case studies. (CHN271, $24.95)
 		  
Miao Textiles from China  •  Gina Corrigan   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  A short, illustrated introduction to the textiles of the Miao peoples of the Guizhou Province in southwestern China. Gina Corrigan provides social context and analysis of techniques. (CHN322, $24.95)
 		  
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)
 		  
China Road  •  Rob Gifford   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  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  •  Jonathan Spence   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  Yale Sinologist, writer and historian Spence tracks the life of the Chinese ruler from his provincial upbringing through his powerful rule. (CHN66, $14.00)
 		  
Red China Blues, My Long March from Mao to Now  •  Jan Wong   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  Jan Wong tells of her experiences in the "hermetically sealed bubble of Maoism" as one of two westerners to attend Beijing University, then offers a first-hand account of recent reforms in China. (CHN37, $15.95)
 		  
The Last Days of Old Beijing, Tales from the New City  •  Michael Meyer   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  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)
 		  
Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China  •  Jung Chang   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 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)
 		  
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  •  Xiaolong Qui   • 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)
 		  
Wild China  •  John MacKinnon  •  Nigel Hicks   • NATURAL HISTORY  •  A beautiful oversize book of photographs featuring Chinese wildlife and natural history. This informative, up-to-date survey of the wildlife of China also features excellent maps and detailed explanatory text. (CHN19, $39.95)
 		  
 
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