Can you reccommend a book about someone's journey travelling around China?

[malazann]

I love a good travel book, my favourite being As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee (highly reccommend, set in mostly Spain between WW1 and 2). Also there was a book about a bloke travelling along the path of cherry blossoms as they bloomed in Japan.

 

So as you can tell, adventure-style travel books are something I'm quite fond of. I've got a few China travel books on the list

 

- China Road by Rob Gifford

- River Town by Peter Hessler

- Riding the Iron Rooseter by Paul Theroux 

- Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost (mixed reviews)

 

can you guys either +1 of these books or suggest some others? Books in Chinese are also welcome!

[Jellyfish]

Great topic, I love those types of books too and will definitely follow!

 

Unfortunately I don't have any real recommendation for you (yet), other than to say that I think Country Driving by Peter Hessler might be the more well-known Hessler book and I really enjoyed much of it when I read it a while back. The writing is lovely, vivid and descriptive, he's clearly very knowledgeable and adventurous which is fantastic; unfortunately it read a bit condescending and Western-gaze-y to me in parts. I have recently started and paused River Town because that seemed even more pronounced in this one, or maybe it's just that I'm more sensitive to it now, or maybe I was just in the wrong mood when I started it haha. I'll definitely finish it at some point though.

 

Next on my list is Long Peace Street by Jonathan Chatwin which probably doesn't quite fit the adventure book bill but has great reviews, and in his interviews the author comes across as really interesting and well-read.

 

Finally, if you're interested in good travel writing beyond China (but with a Chinese connection), I can highly recommend the (sadly mostly out of print) Silent Traveller series by Chiang Yee. He was a Chinese national who lived in Europe and the US in the 30s - 70s and then returned to China. In fact, he did write one book about China (China Revisited after Forty-Two Years) which might be of interest. I haven't read it myself yet but I have a copy and I'm hoping to get to it soon. The best source for Silent Traveller books that I could find was Thriftbooks, followed by most other second hand bookshops; the Oxford and Edinburgh got reprints so those should be available anywhere really. Mind you though the reprints are pretty cheap and just in black and white so his beautiful water colours are nowhere near as impressive as the colour prints in the early print runs.

 

[Jim]

I'm from the same part of Gloucestershire as Laurie Lee and once served him when I worked in a local pub as a young man! /brushes with greatness

 

Ma Jian's Red Dust in either original or translation might fit your bill; it's got its flaws but it's also a bit of a window on its time (early reform years) so it's travel in time as well as space.

[TheBigZaboon]

I don't remember the title, but I think there's a book John DeFrancis wrote about his travels in Mongolia in the late 1930's. Lotsa famous and influential warlords and stuff. Surprisingly, these were the only times he spent in China. With the size of his textbook series, I woulda thunk he'd been born and raised there, but it seems that's not the case.

 

TBZ

[TheBigZaboon]

Found it: "In the Footsteps of Ghengis Khan," by John DeFrancis...

[amytheorangutan]

This is not strictly travel book but I love Shen Fu’s Six Records of a Floating Life. It has a section where he wrote about places he travelled to but I remember when I read it even the parts that wasn’t about travel made me want to go to China. 

[malazann]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I definitely do want to read about journeys that take place in different times. I put them all in a goodreads list with some others I've come across - China Travelogue Books (16 books) | Goodreads

 

 

[laowai-guide]

I'm actually in the middle of publishing a book modeled on the time that I studied abroad in Beijing. It's called 多喝热水, and it humorously touches upon my experiences with traveling to different cities, US-Chinese cultural differences, difficulties in learning Chinese, and it also includes a little bit of history. If you're interested, I can send over a pdf for free if you're willing to give some honest feedback in exchange.

 

Mods, if this isn't allowed, feel free to remove.

[abcdefg]

On 2/12/2022 at 7:22 PM, laowai-guide said:

It's called 多喝热水

 

Excellent title! Those of us who have lived in China can appreciate how appropriate it is. 

[TheBigZaboon]

And the containers used, whether by teachers in a classroom or colleagues in a business meeting, range from the ingenious to the bizarre... Everything from bell jars to homemade thermos bottles... And there's no telling what's actually floating around in there...

 

Sounds interesting, I'd love to read it. The length of my time in China pales in comparison to others here, but home learned habits die hard. For Chinese, drinking tap water anywhere in the world is a no-no, regardless of whether it's in  Singapore, Tokyo, or San Francisco. The behavior is the same.

 

 If I can free up some time from a promise to help proofread a grammar book that really needs it, I'll try to get in touch...

 

TBZ

 

PS: After I posted and read my post, it seemed like I was offering to proofread. I'm sure you don't need that. I'm helping someone else who really does need it.

Sorry...

[malazann]

On 2/13/2022 at 12:22 PM, laowai-guide said:

If you're interested, I can send over a pdf for free if you're willing to give some honest feedback in exchange.

Happy to, I'll send you a dm. writing a book must be a daunting task so congrats on making it this far! 

[abcdefg]

On 2/13/2022 at 2:09 AM, TheBigZaboon said:

For Chinese, drinking tap water anywhere in the world is a no-no, regardless of whether it's in  Singapore, Tokyo, or San Francisco. The behavior is the same.

 

Same for drinking ice water. I now live in Texas and it is customary, a sign of essential hospitality, to set a glass of ice water on the table when you sit down in a restaurant without even asking. Even in an humble breakfast joint ("Sally's Diner") or a truck stop on the highway. Summer or winter makes no difference.

 

In China, I always got a kick out of being asked by the waitress whether or not I wanted my beer cold. 温的还是冰的？For local customers, indigenous people, it was usually just served room temperature, taken off a shelf, not pulled out of the fridge. (That was in Kunming; not true to so much of an extent in Zhuhai.) 

[Lu]

On 2/12/2022 at 6:08 AM, Jim said:

Ma Jian's Red Dust in either original or translation might fit your bill

I was going to recommend this one as well.