Best 10 China Travel Guidebooks

China is an amazing cultural treasure of the world situated in eastern Asia. Its natural wealth, five millennia of history, and an old continuous civilization, place China as a great travel destination. Numerous historical monuments scattered across the vast territory are vestiges of the ancient Chinese culture. These include: the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, X'ian's Terracotta Army and Tiananmen Square. The vast land of this country also hosts various natural landscapes, such as the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, the Silk Road, the Tibet or Hainan Island.

• 1. The Rough Guide to China

  

  The Rough Guide to China Travel guides are swell wherever, with museum tips here and restaurant recommendations there, but a great guidebook is essential in China. Independent Western travelers hang on their travel guide's every word for survival, and Rough Guide delivers, describing hotel, restaurant, and transportation details accurately and clearly. It also provides scads of information on culture, history, sights, dangers, pleasures, politics, health, weather, clothing, money, and customary niceties. The maps are excellent, and important phrases (hotels, destinations) are written in Chinese characters. And as a backpacker bonus, the book weighs a mere 1.3 pounds despite the thoroughness of its content.

• 2. China (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

  

  China Eyewitness Travel Guides DK Eyewitness Travel's full-color guidebooks to hundreds of destinations around the world truly show you what others only tell you. They have become renowned for their visual excellence, which includes unparalleled photography, 3-D mapping, and specially commissioned cutaway illustrations.

• 3. Lonely Planet China Country Travel Guide

  

  Lonely Planet China Country Travel Guide Nobody knows China like Lonely Planet. Whether you want to sip cocktails in Shanghai, trek Tibet's holy Mt Kailash or contemplate history at Xu'an's Army of Terracotta Warriors, our 11th edition will guide you through the best of this jaw-dropping destination - and reveal more of it than any other guide.

• 4. Lonely Planet Tibet Travel Guide

  

  Lonely Planet Tibet Travel Guide This completely revised and updated Lonely Planet guide to Tibet features new maps, detailed trekking information, overland routes from China and Nepal, Tibetan and Mandarin language sections, as well as essential notes on history, culture, and Buddhism.

• 5. Lonely Planet Hong Kong & Macau City Travel Guide

  

  Lonely Planet Hong Kong & Macau City Travel Guide Spot your hotel room from the twinkling heights of the Peak. Hang out in a maze-like walled village, where prostitution and gambling once thrived. Escape from the skyscrapers to the trees as you hike the region's mountain, coast and jungle trails. Savor the finest Portuguese egg-custard tarts in Macau.

• 6. Lonely Planet Beijing City Travel Guide

  

  Lonely Planet Beijing City Travel Guide Discover where the last emporer threw in the towel at the astonishing Forbidden City. Hone your haggling skills for must-have Mao memorabilia and silk everything. Learn to slurp noodles, wield chopsticks and avoid talking politics at the table. Experience Beijing's rich culture, from ancient history to medieval temples to modern literature.

• 7. Lonely Planet Shanghai City Travel Guide

  

  Lonely Planet Shanghai City Travel Guide Stroll along the stately Bund and gawk at the futuristic neon of Pudong. Escape the skyscrapers into the tree-lined French Concession's hip eateries and vogue boutiques. Haggle with hawkers over a must-have cheongsam (Chinese dress) or handmade yak scarves. Meet some of the 19 million inhabitants through interviews with a boutique owner, and art professor and others.

• 8. CHINA: Portrait of a People

  

  CHINA: Portrait of a People Capturing the diversity of [China's] 56 ethnic groups is a remarkable achievement ... There are a number of shots in this book that could easily grace the pages of National Geographic ... Unless you want to undertake your own two-year trek through some of the mainland's most difficult terrain to take your own shots, this is a study well worth having on your bookshelf.

• 9. Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip

  

  Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip In an epic road trip following the Great Wall across northern China, he surveys dilapidated frontier outposts from the imperial past while barely surviving the advent of the nation's uniquely terrifying car culture.

• 10. China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power

  

  China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power National Public Radio China correspondent Gifford journeyed for six weeks on China's Mother Road, Route 312, from its beginning in Shanghai for nearly 3,000 miles to a tiny town in what used to be known as Turkestan. The route picks up the old Silk Road, which runs through the Gobi Desert to Central Asia to Persia and on to Europe.