About this title: An acclaimed National Public Radio reporter takes a dramatic journey along China's Route 312 from its start in the boomtown of Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. Along the way, he poses crucial questions regarding China's future as a super power.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780747588924ISBN:0747588929
Description: Very Good. Very good, never read-books may have a tear, creasing, or other small defect. Generally, very good condition. No.1 BESTSELLERS-great prices, friendly customer service-usually dispatched within 24 hrs. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780747588924ISBN:0747588929
Description: Fine. Like new, never read-books may have a remainder mark, small tear, crease, or other minor defect. Apart from this, excellent condition. No.1 BESTSELLERS-great prices, friendly customer service-usually dispatched within 24 hrs. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780747588924ISBN:0747588929
Description: New. Brand new books, maps and cd's available immediately from a reputable and well rated UK bookseller; despatched promptly and reliably worldwide. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780747588924ISBN:0747588929
Description: Fine. Minor bumping to edges and extremities, otherwise brand new & unread. Next working day dispatch from the UK. Please contact us with any queries. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780747593355ISBN:0747593353
Description: Good. Good, never read-books may have a tear, creasing, or other defect. Apart from this, good condition. No.1 BESTSELLERS-great prices, friendly customer service-usually dispatched within 24 hrs. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780747593355ISBN:0747593353
Description: Very Good. Very good, never read-books may have a tear, creasing, or other small defect. Generally, very good condition. No.1 BESTSELLERS-great prices, friendly customer service-usually dispatched within 24 hrs. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780747593355ISBN:0747593353
Description: Acceptable. Acceptable-books may have tears to cover or pages, creasing, spine damage or other defects. Creasing to page edges. No.1 BESTSELLERS-great prices, friendly customer service-usually dispatched within 24 hrs. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780747593355ISBN:0747593353
Description: Fine. Minor bumping to edges and extremities, otherwise brand new & unread. Next working day dispatch from the UK. Please contact us with any queries. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780747593355ISBN:0747593353
Description: New. Brand new books, maps and cd's available immediately from a reputable and well rated UK bookseller; despatched promptly and reliably worldwide. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780747588924ISBN:0747588929
Description: Fine. Minor rubbing to edges and extremities, otherwise brand new & unread. Next working day dispatch from the UK. Please contact us with any queries. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780747588924ISBN:0747588929
Description: Fine. Minor bumping to edges and extremities, otherwise brand new & unread. Next working day dispatch from the UK. Please contact us with any queries. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780747593355ISBN:0747593353
Description: Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC in 2008. Binding: Paperback. Number of pages: 352. Condition: Good. Used book but in Good Condition for sensible price. #8493489 Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780747593355ISBN:0747593353
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 352 pages. An eye-opening travel narrative that explores a huge country waking up to its potential (Paperback) read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780747588924ISBN:0747588929
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
"On occasion I pick a book up that while it doesn't grab me, it absolutely holds my interest and makes me so glad to have taken the time to read it. This is such a book. I am a huge NPR fan and Rob Gifford is one of its correspondents. He lived in and reported from China for years but prior to reassignment, he traveled the "China Road" from Singapore to the opposite border. As he travels he interviews those with whom he travels and meets. I feel so much better educated about China as a whole and its people. The size of China is hard to even visualize, but in his travels, one gets a clear picture of the various geography, the demographics of the people living there and the conditions under which they live. China is a pretty fascinating place, with horrific stories to tell on itself. Several struck me as so ironic, others made me sad and many made me want to eat their food and sit down and have a chat with the people. A great book to read considering how much China is in the news and in our pockets...."
"In this book NPR correspondent Rob Gifford offers a fascinating view of China's past, present, and potential future. A twenty-year resident of the country, Gifford weaves together an enjoyably readable book that is equal parts travel journal, (the narrative thrust of the book recounts his two-month journey of Highway 312, China's three-thousand mile equivalent to America's Route 66) and political, economic, and spiritual history book.
Along the road, Gifford meets all kinds of interesting people, each one voicing their own hopes and struggles. As an interesting hybrid of "foreigner who speaks the language" the author deftly exposes these individual's lives as demonstrative of the larger life of China as a whole-- an impossible, multi-cultural whole. Gifford's China is hard to pin down, hard to define: at times too Western in its greed and environmentally- damaging technological progress and at times not Western enough, (see the country's treatment of the ethnic minorities in Tibet and Muslim northwest.)
But it's the people that are most fascinating. One of the more heart-rending passages about a karaoke bar prostitute:
"[...}there is a dangerous tendency for everything in modern China to be given an economic impetus, as though financial pressure is the only reason anyone ever does anything. We often fail to see that Chinese people are living, breathing, loving, hating individuals, who do things for complex psychological reasons, just like Westerners. And as Wu Yan sits talking about her life, her story doesn't have that standard tone, which says, "I must do this or I won't be able to eat." She is slightly laconic, and cynical and angry. "So why are you working here?" I eventually ask her. There is a long pause. "There was a boy..." She pauses again for a long time, rattling the dice in the cheap plastic cup. "Wo ting xihuan de...who I liked a lot." She is looking at the floor. "But he liked another girl." She stops shaking the dice, then looks up at me with large, hurt eyes. There is a long silence as I try to compute what she is saying. "So...you're...doing this to punish him?...Or to punish...yourself?" She doesn't answer but reaches out her arm to me, the palm of her hand facing up. There are two jagged scars on her lower arm, as though her wrist had been cut. She looks angrily into my eyes. "It's difficult being a person isn't it?" she says finally. I look at her and nod slowly. She shakes the cup with the dice inside and slams it down on the glass table.
Coming to this book knowing pretty much nothing about the country, the author kept me in it the whole time. Great read!"
"I picked up this book because it was featured on one of the mysterious stacks at Kramerbooks. The one on the back bookshelf with the current-affairs topics. Rob Gifford is an NPR correspondent who traveled in China and basically just reported on what he found - good and bad. From high-powered Hong Kong businessmen, to villagers who don't have enough water, to Amway salesmen, to prostitutes and migrants, you get a sense of many Chinas. He had been based in China years back, so he has a sense of how recent history has changed the country. I highly recommend this book."
"This book is a good intro to modern China - Gifford spent several years in China as an NPR correspondent before embarking on his journey along Route 312, referred to as the "Chinese Route 66" for the way that it spans across the whole country, giving travelers a chance to experience everything that China has to offer.
From ultra-modern Shanghai, across farmlands and deserts and all the way to Kazakhstan, Gifford hitchhikes and takes taxis, describing the people he meets along the way and using them as the basis to expand (sometimes at length) about the parts of China that they represent.
Gifford knows his stuff, or at least appears to, and mixes politics, history, humor, religion and travelogue very well. His encounter with a Chinese bureaucrat responsible for enforcing the country's one-child policy is particularly jarring.
Where is China going? Gifford ultimately offers his opinions in summary at the end of the book, as he informs us that his editors wanted him to, but you really need to read the whole book to get a sense of his opinion.
The only thing I really didn't like about the book - at the end, Gifford just happens to mention that the journey he took (and wrote about) was actually two separate trips across China. I realize it's a small thing but the authenticity takes a bit of a hit.
One other tip - keep a notepad handy to write down all of the Chinese words that Gifford mentions along the way. You could learn a fair bit of Chinese by the end of the book!"
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
