Let's Go 2000: China : The World's Bestselling Budget Travel Series (Let's Go. China, 2000)

Rating:
Summary: Go to China with Let's Go? Let's not.
Review: I find it interesting that for a group of people that supposedly have limited financial resources, there are now no fewer than five publishers catering specifically to low-budget travelers. One of the earliest entrants to this market was Let's Go, which until recently focused mostly on European and North American destinations using their staff of Harvard student writers.

The first edition of Let's Go China arrived in stores just in time for the year 2000. In line with political realignments, the 779-page book includes Hong Kong and Macau, along with some nicely detailed maps for major cities.

In the beginning of the book, a short introduction describes the writing process: writers are selected in the spring, trained for several months, then give seven weeks to travel in their assigned area. This leads me to believe that the writers are on the road during what would be their summer vacation from college. However, based on the writing in Let's Go China, one

of three things happened: 1) Let's Go writers traveled much earlier or later than this description indicates; 2) Let's Go writers are not terribly observant; or 3) Let's Go writers didn't actually visit some of the places they claim and relied instead on word-of-mouth or tourist information.

Case in point: the Shanghai entertainment section refers to one of the city's arts and leisure magazine as iSH. That publication, now known as That's, hasn't been called iSH since early last year. If the writer actually picked up a copy of the magazine, they would have known that, and given the publication's wide distribution, it's hard to miss.

Let's Go's Macau section makes only a passing reference to that city's "notoriously racy nightlife." How is it that a budget travel guide can recommend casinos? Are backpackers trying to save on accommodation so they have money for baccarat? Also, on said racy nightlife, the book points readers to the Jai-Alai Palace and Casino near the Macau Ferry Pier as a place to gamble. Gamble is the correct phrase: a wrong turn inside any one of the Jai-Alai's three main doors could put the unsuspecting visitor inside a full-fledged, Thai-style brothel. Wouldn't it have been a good idea to mention that Macau is the sex tourism destination of choice for Hong Kongers?

It's also clear that the Harvard folks didn't do their homework in places. In describing modern Chinese music, the author coins the phrase "Sino-pop" and then tries to pass it off as regional nomenclature. Sorry, Charlie: the correct phrase is Mandopop (hence the name of the popular column) or Cantopop according to the Chinese dialect in which it is sung. Also, don't intermingle phrases like popular music and rock n' roll; this isn't Ethnomusicology 101. Don't say "Cui Jian, Dou Wei and Faye Wong (Wang Fei) are widely considered to be among the performers on the cutting edge of Chinese popular music." Cui and Dou are rock musicians, whose work does not qualify as "popular music." Faye Wong is a mega-star; Faye was cutting-edge when she was covering The Cranberries in Cantonese five years ago.

In terms of printing and layout, Let's Go China looks remarkably like The Rough Guide to China. The China guide is not as focused as other books in the same series. For example, Let's Go London never acknowledges that there are hotels or restaurants that cost more than several pounds per night or per meal. However, while the China book stays true to this maxim by listing only budget hotels, it frequently refers to restaurants, such as Beijing's Fangshan Imperial Restaurant, that would be way of its target audience's budget at a minimum of 160 RMB per person. Why bother? Are there people crashing in backpacker dorms so they can eat like emperors? Lonely Planet's most recent China book (1998) lists hotels and restaurants in all price ranges even though their contempt for anything above mid-range (and consequently anyone who would stay or eat there) is clear.

The book is good about connectivity, and makes recommendations on where to find Internet access wherever possible, even though it erroneously lists Sparkice's Internet cafes in Beijing as "Dragon Pulse Internet Cafes." Along the same lines, though, it fails to provide any guidance on helpful Web sites that could give the potential visitor some desktop advice before departing.

The above points are likely to be details that the resident would notice but not the traveler. However, that's the whole point of a budget guide, is to arm the visitor with enough information so that they don't wind up lost, cheated, or otherwise at the mercy of those who would prey on them.

Overall, Let's Go China is disappointing. Despite its unbearably sarcastic style and anti-Chinese tone, Lonely Planet's guide remains the book of choice for China travelers on minimal budgets.

On the previous review, one question: how could this book be reviewed by a reader in August 1999 when it wasn't published until December 1999? And from Cambridge, MA, Let's Go's home turf? That sounds a bit strange.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful guide
Review: I found this guide helpful, especially in Beijing. The writing is good and I especially liked how place names were printed in Chinese characters (which made it easy to show taxi drivers). I do find it regretful that the writers only spend seven weeks in the country though. Many people travel during the other 45 weeks of the year and it would be nice to have authoritative information from the non-peak tourist season.

Rating:
Summary: Why does China need a budget travel guide?
Review: I have been to China 5 times and on my most recent trip used this book. I've used both Fodor's and Frommer's guide before. I found this book to be the most complete and accurate of the three. This book also covered a lot of the smaller destinations such as interesting cities that the other guides ignore or lend short thrift to (for instance, Kaifeng).

However, I'm unclear why China needs a budget travel guide as China must be one of the cheapest places to travel to in the world. So, I was a little disappointed that it didn't list some of the more "expensive" restaurants ($8-$15/person for Beijing duck at a real fancy place for example).

Rating:
Summary: Overall good but lacking in some important details
Review: I have just came back from China using this book for my travel. One BIG mistake this book did not tell you is DON'T TRAVEL IN CHINA during 5/1-5/5 and 10/1-10/5. Apparently, the WHOLE COUNTRY is on a 5 day holiday. This has been going on for the past 2-3 years. When you look in the book, it only tells you that 5/1 and 10/1 are holidays. No, no, no. Majority of the country is on the move. Transportation, lodging and food service are difficult to find. A lot of government services are either closed or on minimum service schedule.

Some of the prices and ticket prices are already out of date. I guess they have not made the effort to update this.

A train schedule with explaination would've been extremely helpful. I was lucky to be able to speak Chinese. Even I was unable to make head or tail of the schedule that I brought. You can only buy one way train ticket. If you want round trip, you have to buy it at the other end or through a travel agent.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful guide
Review: I just returned from a Spring Break trip to China and found Let's Go China 2000 to be immensely helpful. This book helped me overcome one of my biggest fears about going to China--the language barrier. Let's Go China has a remarkable bilingual tranlation system. For each place of interest, restaurant, hotel etc. the book lists not only the English name and the phonetic tranlsation, but also the Chinese characters. Since very few locals speak English and very few of them could understand my half-hearted attempt at pronouncing "Qianmen Xi Dajie" (Front Gate Boulevard West), I could simply show them the printed character name of the place that I wanted to go, and they'll point the way. (This worked even better with taxi drivers, most of whom do not speak English).

In addition, all of Let's Go China's street maps had English and Chinese. So when I was totally lost in the Muslim Quarter in Xian, I just walked up to an old muslim guy sit'in on the corner and showed him my map. He was able to locate himself on the map using the Chinese and then pointed the directions on the map. I understood his instructions by following the English. This is a truly useful innovation that really helps independent travelers. Foreign travelers with other guides without bilingual maps were too afraid to venture into the hard-to-navigate places like the hutongs (catacomb of alleyways in Old Beijing) so they hired expensive trickshaw tours. I was able to apply my savings to better uses.

Let's Go is really good at mixing budget advices and highlighting pricy, but unforgettable places to visit. For example the Fangshan Restaurant in Beihai Imperial Park (formerly the banquet hall of emperor) was one of the fanciest places that I've ever eaten at. Sure, it was pricy, but I got around it by ordering a few pieces of dessert and a coke. The imperial ambiance was incredible! Another great place: The Louwailou restaurant on the West Lake in Hanghzou, a favorite of Chiang Kai-shek and Zhou Enlai. The West lake sweet and sour carp (heavenly!) puts all of these Chinese carry outs in America to shame. Another myth: budget travelers can't go to casinos. Being from New Jersey, I know that Atlantic City is the cheapest place to eat, stay, and get entertained. So going to Macau was more of a cultural experience (Oriental plus Portuguese) for me.

China's changing so fast that I was surprised at how up-to-date LG China. While fellow foreigners I met spoke of frustration over the inaccuracies of their 1997 or 1998 guides (One poor Brit in Hangzhou wasted half a day in Hangzhou searching for a hotel that had been bulldozed), I had no problems with prices changes, transportation schedules etc. Let's Go even included the new Beijing Subway Line, which just opened last October.

The biggest savings I made was before I even left the US. Following Let's Go's advice, I booked my plane ticket from travel agents in New York's Chinatown. They've got the cheapest deals. My round trip from JFK to Beijing was only $680 compared to more than $1100 quoted on a lot of websites.

Now's a great time to visit China. Prices are very low after months of deflation. A lot of the country's historical relics are disappearing. With a book like Let's Go China to breakdown the information barriers, there's no reason not to go.

My unforgettable China odyssey took me through Beijing, Xian, Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou and Nanjing in two weeks.