China (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

I used two tour books to plan my trip to China: Eyewitness for the general details of the itinerary, and Lonely Planet for the logistical details. The Eyewitness guide has a massive amount of beautiful photographs and illustrations that help give the traveler an idea of the sights he or she can choose from, which is very important--unless you have a year or so to spare, planning a trip to China is as much about choosing what NOT to see as it is choosing what to see. I could also see this being the perfect guide for the more casual traveler; someone in a tour group or someone accompanying a designated "navigator."

That being said, if you are traveling solo (that is, not in a tour group or other organized group of some kind) you will also want to have a more "details-heavy" guide such as the Lonely Planet, which is full of details Eyewitness does not have, including bilingual maps and place names, as well as more and deeper descriptions of sightseeing locations, hotels,...Read more

This is actually my fourth DK guide book. Prior to DK Eyewitness China, I've used Eyewitness Great Britain, Eyewitness London, and Eyewitness Paris on my previous backpacking/business trips. Never had any problems with any of the aforementioned titles. So this year, my wife and I decided to use the DK Eyewitness China for our 3.5 week vacation in the Middle Kingdom. We have also brought a copy of Lonely Planet, figuring it would give us more information over the image-intensive DK guide. The decision to bring along the Lonely Planet guide turned out to be a mistake and an extra pound or two that we didn't really need in our suitcase. The few times we attempted to use the Lonely Planet guide for information on various cities, we found exactly none of the information we needed. Instead, we got an earful of ramblings intended for college backpacking kids. DK guide, on the other hand, provided very easy to use maps and no-nonsense information. If you're exploring a major site, DK's 3d...Read more

In preparing for a recent business trip to China (my first time going there), I asked one of my (Chinese national) colleagues for a few suggested books that provide a good overview of China, both from the historical perspective as well as the "touristy" perspective, and this is the book that was recommended to me.

I've had "China (Eyewitness Travel Guides)" (672 pages) for a couple of months, and found it fascinating reading but really didn't want to judge it until I had a chance to put it to the test while traveling in China. Well, I am here to tell you that the book performed great from that perspective as well. But before we get to that, let me point out that the first 70 pages of the book, providing a general overview and a summary of China's 5000 year history are nothing short of essential, and one of the things that set this book apart from many other China travel guides.

The real test of the book came for me when I was in some of the not so obvious...Read more