Jerusalem and the Holy Land (Eyewitness Travel Guides) - Asia

This first-ever humorous travel guide on China both dishes the dirt on the myriad travel mishaps that may befall any unsuspecting tourist and explains how to avoid them! Possible danger zones debunked include airports, hotels, hospitals, taxis, and bathrooms. Readers will learn essential skills like how to haggle, exchange currencies, cross the street, decipher menus, say useful phrases in Chinese, and more. The guide comes complete with survival tips on etiquette, a map, and resource lists. Don’t leave home for China without it!

Veteran travelers Qin and Larry Herzberg are Chinese language and culture professors at Calvin College in Michigan.

China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps

I've been reading a lot about China in preparation for my trip and this book, by far, has the best practical information for travelers -- tips like "never take a black taxi," make sure you inspect your hotel room, when to go to get your breakfast at the buffet in the hotel, where to exchange money, and what to do if you have a medical emergency. Never having been to China, I really didn't know what to expect. I think I now have a better feel for what I will encounter.

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Cheap and fun enough

The book is cheap and quite fun. However, I do not think that reflects the reality. I suppose that China was not so different from the book version when the anecdotes actually happened. However after visiting China (2009) I am not sure if the vision still holds.

Anyway fun... It is worth while trying before going to China :)

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Never underestimates the problems

If you are at all interested in travel in China then this book is absolutely worth the money and the time. Get it. But when you read the reviews here you should keep track of which reviewers had and which had not been in China at the time they wrote the review. Some people enjoy the book very much but have no way of saying how accurate or practical it is.

In a nutshell: it is very practical, and increasingly out of date even though it was recently published. China is changing incredibly fast, not only the major cites. Many things will be easier for foreign visitors than this book says. The only thing that might be a bit harder is that Chinese tourist sites are ever more jam packed, largely with Chinese tourists from all over the country. When you see the Summer Palace you will also see a great deal of today's China!

The book says ATMs that accept foreign cards are not easy to find even in the largest cities. I can tell you they were very easy to find in Beijing in 2007. The book says that Beijing will try to phase out the shabby 1.20 yuan taxi cabs, leaving only the higher priced 1.60 and 2.00 yuan cabs for the 2008 Olympic Games (plus the unofficial "black" cabs - which they say not to take and I believe they are right). The city did better than that even before this book was printed. During a week in Beijing in 2007 I saw only 2.00 yuan cabs. They were quite nice and that is still a very low price.

The book says people on the street will not stand in line. It warns that people will be quite rude on the street in contrast to how extremely nice they will be in person. Well, the nice in person part remains true. But I found people in Beijing stood in long lines just fine for street food vendors, in fact they seemed impressed that a foreigner could also master this skill! The people of Beijing were given intensive instructions on good behavior leading up to the Olympics. It was a bit like the efforts to make New York City safer and more tourist-friendly in the 1990s only with more focus on politeness and less on crime. The same is happening in other cities, drawing on the Beijing experience, as the others host major international events.

But really these are details, and if anything this book will lead you to plan more carefully than you need to -- it will not lead you into unforeseen trouble!

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Out of date info.

For a book with a publishing date of 2008, this is stunningly out of date. Just got back from my trip to China (Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an) and virtually nothing stated in this book was true. One stand-out: yes, they're right: most toilet stalls don't have paper. But no, there is none for sale or available by the door. BYO tissues or moist towels - those are useful anyway for keeping your hands clean through the day, too. Also, the info. on how to bargain is good; yes, skimpy tops do raise a few eyebrows [more amused and surprised than angry]; and certainly, non-queueing is an art form especially among seniors.

But dead wrong (for my three stops): taxi drivers are literate and can read your hotel address in Chinese if you bring it with you; crossing the street is fairly easy as long as you keep your eyes open and obey the electronic signs (which even count down to tell you how many seconds you have before they are going to change to red); taxi drivers are aggressive but don't drive particularly fast so it's hardly a white-knuckle experience; western-style toilets are available at almost all markets, tourist sites and restaurants; and everything in our hotel rooms was clean and in full working order (4 hotels). Shorts are fine, too.

The stories of the authors' travels are cute, and I can't comment on the business etiquette or medical info., but unless you are traveling back in time or to the remotest hinterlands I doubt you will encounter many of the problems mentioned here. I also found the politics somewhat suspect although I understand that praising dictatorship as the only way to control so large a population may go down well with the officials the authors have to deal with to get their forthcoming documentary made. In any case, I left my copy in Shanghai as it wasn't worth bringing home and I hope the hotel maid had a good sense of humor as she perused it on her way home in the city's brand-new subway system that night.

Other hints for travelers: I had no idea going in that so much info (road signs, restaurant names and menus, tourist info. signs, etc.) would be in English. That, the warm people and the wonderful taxis made getting around much easier than I expected. Also: try to avoid visiting during the first few days of the National Holiday (Oct 1-8). The first two days are military parades and regional spectacles in Beijing, so Tiananmen Square is in use and the Forbidden City is closed to the public, which makes Oct 3-5 *very* busy as most Chinese get the whole week off and flock to visit the sights (esp. the Square, the City and the Badaling section of the Wall). The Mutianyu section of the Wall is a bit further from Beijing but a much better choice -- it was not at all crowded even on the 4th. By about the 6th, things are calming down all over, as the Chinese start to head home. Finally -- if you go to Xi'an, make time to visit the "little warriors" at Xianyiang[sp?], near the airport, as well as the more famous (and admittedly very fabulous) Qin warriors.

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Very useful, mostly correct

I read this prior to a trip to China. It was very useful to understand many things we encountered. Only one glitch--it says Chinese people don't wear shorts in public. That probably changed recently, as shorts appeared to be common. Other than that, highly recommended.

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