Travel to China

The Rough Guide to Beijing, Second Edition

Format: Paperback
Author: Simon Lewis
ReleaseDate: 16 February, 2004
Publisher: Rough Guides
Rating:

Great maps
She said they were better than any maps she'd been able to find in-country. Even my sister, an x-pat living in Beijing, was impressed with the maps in this book. We still did get lost a couple of times, but overall managed very well. Also, the small list of English/Pinyin/Character words in the back came in very handy when we needed to buy a phonecard and no one understood our feeble attempts at spoken Chinese. .

Must-Have if you go to Beijing
We went to some of the most amazing restaurants that we would never have been able to find if not for the really detailed directions in the book (for example, this famous, but out-of-the-way roast duck restaurant hidden in the depths of the hutongs at Qianmen. This book was great--I don't know how we would have managed without it--it gives great, accurate information about places to go (not the nightclubs though), had great maps. ) The maps were very useful, especially to show taxi drivers where you want to go, though you have to read the pinyin names to them since they can't read english. But definitely, you can't go wrong in Beijing with this book.

Reliable, Up-to-Date, Far Better than Lonely Planet
I consistently found this
to be accurate, and it gave good advice. If you plan to go to Beijing and you don't speak Mandarin,
you *need* a good guide book. I met other travelers
using the Lonely Planet, and they didn't find it nearly as
useful.

Related products:
click image or link for details on these China travel books.

	Insider's Guide to Beijing 2007
	Lonely Planet Beijing
	Beijing Travel Map: China Regional Maps 2005/2006 Edition (Periplus Travel Maps)
	Lonely Planet China