China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps 
Product Description: This first-ever humorous travel guide on China both dishes the dirt on the myriad travel mishaps that may befall any unsuspecting tourist and explains how to avoid them! Possible danger zones debunked include airports, hotels, hospitals, taxis, and bathrooms. Readers will learn essential skills like how to haggle, exchange currencies, cross the street, decipher menus, say useful phrases in Chinese, and more. The guide comes complete with survival tips on etiquette, a map, and resource lists. Don t leave home for China without it! Veteran travelers Qin and Larry Herzberg are Chinese language and culture professors at Calvin College in Michigan.
Customer Ratings: - Old China Hand Says This Book is Most Helpful. Most of the reviews for this book are raves, which it deserves.
The last review, however, mysteriously pans it as a false picture of China. As an old China hand, who still visits China every year, I m afraid the one negative review is due to the fact that this person only went to Beijing during the Olympics. Not only is Beijing not typical of most of the rest of China, with the most orderly traffic, for instance, but Beijing was really sanitized for the Olympics.
Traffic was limited, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers were forced to return to their hometowns for the interim, and most Beijingers stayed away due to the giant influx of foreigners. This person hardly saw the real China.
In any case, I d highly recommend this book to anyone traveling to China, particularly independent, adventurous ones.
- Unreal how far off!. Unbelieveable that this book was published in 2008. I read the book thoroughly while preparing for my trip to Beijing for the Olympics. Myself, along with my host who lives in China, totally disagree with what is written in this book. China is a wonderful place and totally different than what this book leads one to believe. I think the people who wrote the book haven t been to China in a few years. Don t buy, gives you the wrong perspective on people, uneducated about culture.
- Great Book!! :D. This book is great! It is an easy and very enjoyable read! I recommend it to anyone traveling to China or for pure amusement. I have read many books about china and this has to be the best one yet!!
- small and inexpensive but great!. Larry and Qin Herzberg have managed to create an inexpensive, easy-to-carry but highly informative--and very humorous--guidebook. It seems to me to stand by itself in terms of genre. Derived from many experiences of taking student groups to China, taking his own private trips including some with his wife Qin, and creating an insightful documentary video on China today (a joint project of the two), this little book is full of sound advice for novice travelers/first time tourists and seasoned businessmen alike. One of the most valuable parts is the short introduction to the Chinese language, incuding an appropriate (i.e. ralistically manageable)number of useful Chinese phrases. So before you go to China get ahold of this book, you will not be sorry--I guarantee it!
- Best China How-To Book Out There. I just moved to Shanghai a month ago and bought several books beforehand to familiarize myself with the culture and etiquette. A friend of mine gave me this one as a going away present. I read it on the plane over (cover to cover - it s a short book) and it was the most candid and informative books on China that I ve read so far. Larry writes in a story-like format so it keeps your attention and helps you retain the info better. The encyclopedia-like guide books just don t keep me engaged after the first few chapters. His amusing anecdotes help portray Chinese life and accurately describe the people, customs and culture. I would highly recommend this book to anyone visiting or moving to China. I ve convinced my family and friends to buy the book to help prepare them for the culture shock when they visit.
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China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps (ID: 1933330511)
