Any chance to find Lonely Planet China in Beijing ?

[Long Pan]

Very easy to find an English version of any Lonely Planet in Beijing : Japan, France, Bolivia, South Africa... you'll get the latest versions in Xidan or WangFuJin. But when it comes to buy the LP China (which I guess is quite natural when you are in Beijing) ask any 售货员 and they look at you strangly as if they never thought it was possible to sell an English guide book about China. Well I guess there must be some political sensitive topics (as per instance limits of Chinese borders) which does not help selling those western books. So is there any chance to find a LP China in Beijing ?

[amandagmu]

It's useless compared to That's Beijing's guide anyways. Just buy that.

[onebir]

It's a long way from Beijing but they'll ship:

Mandarinbooks.cn, Kunming

[crow610]

I ran into the same problem you did...went to WFJ and got the same strange look. Only one person said the book is not sold in China because of some views in LP (probably the fact that Taiwan is not included or something to that degree).

I finally found LP-China at Bookworm located in San Li Cun for around 300RMB. Give them a call first before making the trip because when I bought mine there were only a few available.

Good Luck!

[adrianlondon]

If you're not in a hurry for it, put a message on here asking for someone nice and friendly to bring one with them from the UK or US (it'll be about 120RMB equiv on Amazon) in exchange for 120RMB and a beer/baozi.

If I wasn't already in Beijing I would have done it ;) I brought three lonely planet guides with me for a friend of mine here (none of them on China, oddly enough).

[stickyrice]

My copy was RMB 285 (ouch) at the Bookworm. You can also buy it at the bookshop inside Youyi Shopping Centre, but all the sensitive bits are covered with white masking tape!

[amandagmu]

I should have posted a link to what I was referring to. If you actually are planning to live in Beijing, it's worth buying this at the WFJ bookstore:

http://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guide-Beijing-Pillsbury-Editor/dp/0977333418/ref=sr_1_1/102-6910449-7276158?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180509251&sr=8-1

Seriously.... the summer I lived there it was the only book that had things in Chinese characters so you could just show the cab driver the page (like, the one with the address for a Carrefour) instead of trying to explain or show on a map. I think the book is cheaper in China than on Amazon too.

~Amanda

[Long Pan]

Thanks for your advise . I finally found the time to go to the Bookworm and buy the Rough Guide China (280 RMB) - they have many of them. But no LP to sale - you can nevertheless consult an old version in the library part. However it seems they regularly get some from HK but demand is higher than supply.