Best tour guide BOOK for Beijing?

[hanxue]

I appologize if this has been discussed already, but I couldn't really find any useful info by using the Search function.

In short, I just received a letter from Beijing that I was admitted to BNU with a full scholarship for the spring semester next year. This will be my first time in Beijing and mainland China as such (been to Taiwan tho), so I'd like to get as much out of it as possible.

I would like to know, which tour guide book would you recommend to me? I'd like to focus primarily on BEIJING for now, so which book on Beijing would you suggest? I've seen Lonely Planet ones, but is there anything better than that?

Thanks in advance.

[roddy]

This, and if you need one, their Mandarin phrasebook is pretty nifty. Been a while since I looked at either, but they're geared towards people actually staying here - so while they cover the tourist stuff, there's also info on jobs, schools, housing, etc, of interest to longer-term residents.

You can get them from Amazon, but I think they're quite a bit pricier - check, it might be worth waiting till you get here. You can have them delivered in Beijing, or the Sculpting in Time cafe at the south gate of BNU should stock them. Also make sure you're getting the latest edition, they update annually.

Congratulations on the scholarship.

[hanxue]

Roddy, thanks for a prompt reply. Would this be it then?

http://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guide-Beijing-Annual-Chinese/dp/7802029503/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247758223&sr=1-1

It says (Chinese Edition) tho, does that mean it's all in Chinese or something?

Thanks!

[roddy]

Yeah, that's the one. Chinese edition here I guess just means it's printed in China. There's a sample pdf on the website I think.

[greenarcher]

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g294212-Beijing.html

[jbradfor]

The book Roddy' mentions is more of a "living in a city guide" than a "tour guide" book. While it's a great book, you would probably not want to use it as a tour book for an afternoon trip to a hutong or the bell town or Soong's residence, for example. It's too big to carry with you, and it's not arranged in a way that's useful for on-the-spot touring. [At least it wasn't when I last looked at it.] Since you're spending full semester there, you might want to get that one, but I highly recommend you get a more "standard" tour book for those days you want to play tourist.

I used Frommer's back in '05, and had mixed feelings about it. Overall I thought it was very well done, but it had some major flaws in terms of many errors and lack of cross-reference that makes it impossible for me to recommend it. But maybe there's a later edition that fixes it. [Later edit: yes, there is a new edition. I used the 4th edition, with a woman with a mobile phone on the cover. The 5th edition is now out, with some weird modern art on the cover.]

You also might want to consider a map. I found this one very good, but it's now several years old and out of print: http://www.amazon.com/Beijing-Travel-Map-Regional-Periplus/dp/0794600646/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247772771&sr=1-2

[just_me]

I've seen quite a few books, and till now I still think that the LP's guide to Beijing (not the China one), though won't give you too detailed information, is probably the best for a newcomer.

[hanxue]

^^ What's the "LP guide to Beijing"?

Thanks to everyone for your input. I'm probably still going with the Insider's Guide...

[just_me]

LP - Lonely Planet