Recommended Reads: Travel to China
"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step" - Lao Tzu
China is a vast country in the midst of tremendous change. With Beijing being the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics, China intends to use that spotlight to display to the world its reemergence as an economic, cultural and military giant, echoing its ancient dynastic greatness. If travel to China is not on your calendar, experience the country through the words of travelers ranging from a 13th century explorer, a Peace Corps volunteer, a historian, a foreign correspondent and others.
Recorded cassette (RC), braille (BR), and large type (LT) copies of these books are available from the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of the titles listed.
Across China by Peter Jenkins
RC 25984
Bestseller. The author's journey from Tibet to inner Mongolia and an account of his experiences with the 1984 mountain-climbing expedition that scaled the north wall of Mt. Everest. He tells of living in a Mongolian village, dining on yak in Tibet, and being followed in Beijing.
Ancestors: 900 years in the Other Life of a Chinese Family by Frank Ching
RC 28180
A former reporter finds himself drawn back to his homeland. In 1973, he goes to Peking as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, and traces his family history back to the eleventh century. He discovers thirty-three generations descended from a romantic poet, Qin Guan, of the Song Dynasty.
Behind the Wall: a Journey Through China by Colin Thubron
RC 34567
This English travel writer, learning Mandarin before his yearlong journey covering China, writes his impressions of the country in the 1980s and the everyday life of its citizens. He traveled by foot, bicycle, and public transportation and deliberately sought out-of-the-way places to visit
Danziger's Travels: Beyond Forbidden Frontiers by Nick Danziger
RC 33444
An Englishman adept at languages and disguises, retraces the ancient Silk Road from Turkey to China, mostly on foot. His eighteen-month encounter with Asian people, religions, traditions, and geography produces an adventure tale and travel book by this not-your-average tourist.
From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet by Vikram Seth
RC 27667
Following 2 years as a graduate student at Nanjing University, Seth begins a hitchhiking journey across Northwest China and Tibet to his home in India. Along the way, his curiosity and fluent Chinese bring him close to native people who speak candidly of life in China.
I Didn't Hear the Dragon Roar by Frances M. Parsons
RC 28448, BR 7652
An art historian records her solo odyssey through China in 1986. She discusses her hearing impairment, and how she travels independently. Parsons has few difficulties and many adventures, as she lectures at schools for the deaf and visits such sights as the Forbidden City and the Tashilhunpo Monastery.
Iron & Silk by Mark Salzman
RC 33201
Salzman's first job after graduation from Yale in 1982 was teaching English in Changsha. He records his experiences with a wide range of people, illuminating Chinese culture and character. He describes his acceptance as a pupil by one of China's leading martial arts experts. For high school and older readers.
Oracle Bones: a Journey Between China's Past and Present by Peter Hessler
RC 63556
Foreign correspondent portrays the interaction of China with the West through the personal accounts of ordinary Chinese people, including a factory worker, a teacher, archaeologists, an emigrant to the United States, some of Hessler's former students, and the late scholar Chen Mengjia.
Questions of Heaven: the China Journey of an American Buddhist by Gretel Ehrlich
BR 12597
The writer travels to China to climb a sacred Buddhist mountain. Hoping to "pick up the threads of a once flourishing Buddhist culture," she is saddened to see the extent of destruction the ten-year-long cultural revolution wreaked on things spiritual, intellectual, and creative.
Red Dust : A Path Through China by Mark Jian
BR 16369
Disgusted with his personal problems and job in Beijing, a thirty-year-old artist becomes a Buddhist monk and buys a train ticket to Urumqi. He embarks on a three-year journey to reach Tibet, searching for spiritual enlightenment and describing the hardships of traveling in China's remote areas. Some strong language.
Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux
RC 27010, BR 7553
Bestseller. The popular travel author's itinerary calls for departure by rail from London, and a series of hook-ups that lead him to China. He provides a portrait of China after the Cultural Revolution. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex.
The River at the Center of the World: a Journey Up the Yangtze and Back in Chinese Time by Simon Winchester
RC 62767
Geographer and author of Krakatoa (RC 55879) navigates nearly four thousand miles on and along the Yangtze River in China, from the East China Sea to Tibet. Describes the momentous events that transpired along the river's course and its sites including Shanghai, the Three Gorges, and the underdeveloped interior.
River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler
RC 53238
Memoir of an American Peace Corps volunteer who taught English literature in a teachers' college in rural southern China from 1996 to 1998. Intersperses reminiscences of daily events with descriptions of local landscape, history, and people. Discusses the difficulties of a Westerner trying to understand Chinese culture.
The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D Spence
RC 31386
Bestseller. A Yale University professor of history relates 400 years of China's modern history. He explores four themes: Chinese rulers have tried to keep out foreign influences; China has been continually in a state of revolution; China is not a modern nation; and how it is seeking modernization.
The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo
RC 13298
Written while he was a prisoner of war at Genoa, this is the Venetian explorer's own account of his travels in Asia in the 13th century, a tale which was widely read but little believed by his contemporaries.
A Traveller in China by Christina Dodwell
BR 6482
High-spirited account of the adventurous author's four-month journey into remote areas of China. On a route that took Christina Dodwell from Kasghar in the north, across the stinging sands of the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts, she traveled by local transport, by canoe, and by camel.
Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment by Richard Bernstein
RC 53912
At age fifty-five, a New York Times writer fulfills a yearning for travel and change by following the route of seventh-century Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang's pilgrimage for wisdom across China, south through India, and back to China. Along the way he compares his observations to those recorded by Hsuan Tsang.