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)

China & the Yangtze