which guide book to china?

[chiahuei]

hi..... hoping for some advice to which guide book i should buy on china! coming in march to study mandarin in beijing... and i want to travel as much as i can wanna read up before arriving... lonely planet and rough guide's are my usuals but i dont know which to pick for china! if anyone has recommendations please shout out! thanks!

[DaTou]

For beijing, I recommend the "Insider's guide to Beijing". It is very nice, full of informations. It is not really a "travel" book, but more a city guide for those who stay for some time

[mikelove]

Lonely Planet is probably still the most accurate of the big ones (though I haven't seen the new edition), Frommers is also quite decent, and they've helpfully posted most of their guide online at http://www.frommers.com/destinations/china/.

[Yang Rui]

I think the Lonely Planet is best if you're planning on travelling round and you don't have much experience of China or budget tourism.

However, I prefer the Rough Guide. Some people say it doesn't have enough details (eg it will give a price bracket for a hotel, not give the exact price), but I think this stops you becoming over-reliant on it, which is good. The Rough Guide also seems to have more historical background to the places it covers.

Whichever you go for, have a good time, and remember to follow your instincts as well as the book.

[PeterMUC]

I compared Lonely Planet and Rough Guides a couple of weeks ago and chose Lonely Planet. They both are very detailed but Lonely Planet seems to have more information about less touristic parts of China. Besides, I like their layout, its easy to quickly lookup information I need (might be because I used their guide books before, though).