Product Description

309,000 Britons visited mainland China in 2006 -(National Statistics).This title features a special chapter on the Beijing Olympics. It includes excursions to the Great Wall and Ming Tombs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140255 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Customer Reviews

our holy book of beijing
very handy guide to slide in your backpocket. we could not have taken on beijing without this little book. the book is practically divided in the different regions of the city, has good maps and some good tips. the tips are good when it comes to museums, parks, getting around and some shopping. the restaurant tips are not very good though, maybe because all restaurants advised by lonely planet become overcrowded and overpriced. plus maybe beijing simply has too many good places to eat to travel the extra miles for the one tipped by lonely planet. another great thing about the book is that it has all adresses printed in chinese, so you hand it to the cabdriver. our copy got lost in a cab on our very last day, but this book helped me so much that i bought a new one back home, just as a souvenir :)

for the highlights of the city (e.g. temple of heaven, forbidden city etc.) it is good to have some other book that offers more background information than this little book does. don't expect the attractions to offer much information in english other than very small signs that seem translated by a webpage.

So-so. More of a glossy magazine overview than useful guide.
Disappointing maps (very difficult to read and most taxi drivers couldn't see where we wanted to go - our hotel had taxi cards which were brilliant and we relied on these in the end).
The info was quite old too and was pretty scant and magazine-y. It didn't feel particularly insightful or in-depth. I'd recommend getting whichever guide is the latest to be published on Beijing and pick up Time Out and the Beijinger when you're there. The pull out map is just paper and not very practical for travel - it ended up torn and binned on day 1 - my husband's DK Top 10 Beijing's map was laminated and lasted the full 7 days. The Lonley Planet gets points for the Chinese language being next to English language for place names, restaurants etc. though the type was quite faint and a lot of Mandarin readers we showed it to had difficulty reading it. If you pick up Time Out and the Beijinger though they also have the Mandarin for restraunts etc. and it's free!

handy and up to date for a compact guide
Bought this for my one month trip to Beijing and must say it was invaluable for my first week. A few things are out of date but Beijing moves at about the speed of sound (literally) so these things are forgiven. It is compact and handy so was in my back pocket or man bag on day trips. Great for a week's trip or so but by about the second or third week I'd started using Beijing Timeout for things to do. Probably better this way anyway as like I said Beijing moves pretty quick...