The Rough Guide to China (Rough Guides) [ペーパーバック]

Rough Guides used to be my go-to guide books, with up-to-date, honest (not sugar-coated) descriptions, and great tips for independent travelers. I was excited to find that a brand new edition was published just two weeks before I started my vacation. But I just got back from a three week trip to China, and I truly cannot express this strongly enough: do NOT, for the love of God, do NOT buy this travel guide, especially if you actually need a guide that will help you get from one destination to another.

The most critical problem with the book is the fact that Chinese/English translations are difficult to access, when they are provided at all. Unlike Lonely Planet, Rough Guide China does not write out the names of the destinations/hotels/restaurants/etc. in characters next to the entry about them. What this means is that you have to keep flipping forward or backward several pages to find out how to say or write it in Chinese -- knowing what something is called in English will do you absolutely no good whatsoever. While this may not sound like a major drawback, I can assure you that once you arrive in China and depend on being able to quickly reference this information, you will understand why it's a big deal.

Even worse, NONE of the addresses are written in characters, or even in pinyin. I cannot even begin to say how many headaches this caused -- most taxi drivers in Beijing and Shanghai (and I assume in most other parts of the country as well) do not know where hotels are by their name - they really need the address. This makes the guide completely useless, causes untold frustration (both for you and the cab driver). And of course none of the maps has the street names written in characters either. There are very few directions on how to get to any of the hotels or restaurants by public transportation.

All of this is compounded by shoddy editing, which means that not all of the destinations mentioned even show up at all in the page-long lists where the names are provided in characters. Also, some of the addresses are flat-out wrong -- so even if you manage to say the address and have it understood, you may find yourself giving the cabbie the wrong directions (as I did, after arriving at 1 a.m. in Shanghai, exhausted and desperate to get to my hotel, take a shower, and go to bed).

If those weren't enough reasons to keep you from buying this guide, there are plenty of others -- bad maps, illogical layout, almost complete overlap with Lonely Planet re: places reviewed & recommended. This guarantees that you will never be far off the well-trodden tourist path. Was also disappointed with the meager sections on shopping - sure, everyone wants to visit the big fake markets at least once to see what they're all about, but those are completely geared towards tourists, and sell mass-produced souvenir-y stuff (much of it of dubious quality). It would be nice to have recommendations on where to find unique, artisanal, high-quality goods as well.

Disagree with Mr. M. Kibbee. I think this is very good guide book, it is a bit different than Lonely (I mean layout and in much less degree destinations), but not worse. Chinese/English translations as full as in LP (even more) and easy to use (IMHO), maps are very convenient to use - more colours (you have to have very keen eye for distinguish subtle shades of grey in LP's maps and hieroglyphs in text are too small). Don't worry about restaurants - eating is not problem in China, in big cities you will waste much time trying to find certain restaurant (too many ones) with either LP or RG.
In general Rough Guide is much more substantial (interesting) than LP (guide itself and cultural aspects), but transportation (especially long distance buses) is a weakest point of this guide (LP has much more details).

About 5th edition: They have much renovated Accommodation section (but I advise use online booking if available).
Major questions to this edition - information on site entry fees and addition of new sites (almost lack of it). It seems that they just reproduce some chapters without checking of them. As a consequence you can not plan your budget on this information. Even one year old LP (2007) has more up-to-date prices and some new sites. The chapter on Xian is worse in this aspect (and why they didn't add account on Tomb of Emperor Jingdi).

Nevertheless I think RG is one of the best guides on China and you will have difficult alternative between it and LP. I have both and used them both in China (4th RG and 10th LP). I like RG more.

For three years from previous edition it is very pale job, two stars for novelty of 5th edition, 5 - for guide in general, 4 stars on average.

P.S. Sorry for my English

In the past year I've had the opportunity to travel extensively within China covering a dozen provinces, and it's been a very rewarding experience. In preparation for my travels, I read through 9 of the 14 chapters. It's probably still the best China guide on the market, but very disappointing by Rough Guide standards since it lacks the thoroughness so typical of the Rough Guide series.

The book begins promisingly with a good coverage of Beijing, although maps for the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace are sorely needed as they are huge and very confusing. The author curiously asserts that "nowhere else on the Chinese mainland can compete with the culinary wealth of Beijing", which is like claiming Berlin as the culinary capital of Europe.

The Sichuan chapter is probably the best written of the whole book. Good coverage of all the important sights, especially Mount Emei, and even mentions the atmospheric Kuan Xiangzi in Chengdu, which opened just before this edition was published. It understandably misses the Sichuan Museum, which only opened a few months ago.

The Tibet chapter is also well-written, save for the disappointing fact that the whole eastern Tibet is completely missing. For anyone interested in visiting Tibet, I highly recommend the Lonely Planet Tibet and note that independent travel for foreigners is currently not possible after the 2008 riot.

The coverage of Guilin and Yangshuo is dated. The book still says the Li River cruise departs from the docks on Binjiang Road, although they were moved downstream outside the city almost a decade ago. Some major sites are not mentioned, such as Lingqu Canal, the oldest in the world that's still in use, and Shi Wai Tao Yuan (roughly translated as Paradise) park in Yangshuo with stunning scenery, especially during sunset.

The Xi'an section is disappointing for missing a major highlight, Han Yang Ling (Mausoleum of Han Dynasty Emperor Jingdi), the number-two must-see sight after the Terracotta Warriors, IMO. The huge underground excavation site/museum is very impressively done, and it's conveniently located on the way to the airport, you'd be crazy to miss it. Also not mentioned is the excellent Xi'an Museum (same ticket as the Small Wild-Goose Pagoda). In the rest of Shaanxi Province, a number of notable places are missing, such as the city of Hanzhong with a number of Three-Kingdom era sights, Hukou Waterfall on the Yellow River, and the Mausoleum of Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), revered by all Chinese as their common ancestor.

In Shanghai, the author has finally discovered Xintiandi, almost a decade too late, but still doesn't seem to know about the more authentic and atmospheric Tianzi Fang. He also apparently just noticed the huge South Train Station that opened a few years ago, and managed to squeeze in one sentence just before the book went to press. The book mentions four metro lines, while the city has eight, with several more to start soon. Also missing are the old canal towns of Zhujiajiao and Qibao in the outskirts of the city.

Whoever wrote/edited the Jiangsu and Zhejiang chapter should be fired. It's a shame on the Rough Guide name. Unbelievably, someone decided to eliminate half of the pages from the last edition, removing all references to the famous cities of Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Wuxi, Yixing, and Ningbo, as well as the Taihu Lake. Zhenjiang City was listed as a highlight in the last edition, but now it's completely gone. Go figure! Fortunately Suzhou is still there but its most famous sight, Huqiu (Tiger Hill), is not. Huqiu is the site of the 2,500 year old tomb of the legendary King Helu of Wu, and an 1,100 year old leaning pagoda. It was already a popular tourist attraction 1,200 years ago when a 4km-long canal was dug from the city gate to serve the tourist traffic. Shantang Street, which runs along the canal, later became the top shopping street in China. Now partially restored, it's a very nice car-free walk. Another missing highlight is the highly atmospheric Xi Yuan Si (West Garden Temple), where monks outnumber tourists, a rarity in China. It boasts an impressive Luohan Hall with 500 life-sized statues, and a large pond where a 400-year-old turtle lives with thousands of younger ones. Also missing are the nearby Hanshan Si, one of the most famous temples in China; Lingering Garden, a world heritage site; and the historic Pingjiang Road, another pleasant walk along an ancient canal.

Zhejiang Province, the wealthiest in China, is particularly poorly covered. None of its three famous ancient canal towns near Shanghai are mentioned: Wuzhen, Nanxun, and Xitang (featured in Mission Impossible 3). Also missing are the scenic area of Qiandao Hu (Thousand-Island Lake) with the nearby ancient villages of Zhuge and Xinye; the sacred Tiantai Mountain, origin of the influential Buddhist Tiantai sect (known as Tendai in Japan); the Southern Great Wall in Linhai, prototype of the Ming-Dynasty Great Wall in Beijing; the beautiful Yandang Mountain and Nanxi River near the dynamic Wenzhou city; and Yiwu city, one of the largest wholesale markets in the world. In Shaoxing, one of the only three places in the province covered in the book, there's no mention of the famous Xianheng Restaurant, probably the stinkiest restaurant on earth, as the city's specialty is its stinky food. You got to be there to believe it.

Elsewhere, notable omissions include the well-preserved ancient town of Wuyuan in Jiangxi Province, and the nearby Taoist holy mountain Sanqing Shan, a world heritage site.

It's no doubt a daunting task to write a guidebook about a continent-sized country like China, which also happens to be changing faster than any other place in the world. Rough Guide is trying to do that with only three authors, no wonder they're doing a poor job. They also make the mistake of employing no native Chinese writers. China poses a unique challenge to independent travelers due to its difficult language. Most of its travel industry is targeted at the domestic tourists, and it's extremely difficult to collect information without the ability to read Chinese. Besides, no Chinese would make the basic mistake of omitting Tiger Hill, Hanshan Temple, Huangdi Mausoleum, and Yangzhou from a China guide, as these places are almost universally known in China. There's a treasure trove of information on Chinese travel websites such as destguides.ctrip.com and its user forums. Rough Guide should hire a Chinese reader to compile that information and incorporate the best into the next edition.