Rating: 
Summary: don't buy this book
Review: Admittedly there are not many other China guidebooks around, but this one seriously sucked. I bought one at my local bookstore for a recent trip to China and (i) the attitude of the editors is simply disgusting [If they can't appreciate the country then they shouldn't even bother to write a book about it] (ii) too much of the info is extremely outdated. We all know that China is growing rapidly and whatnot but that really is no excuse for Lonely Planet to not do their homework and give us horrendously erronous info (iii) Any 'off-the-beaten-track' sight featured in Lonely Planet books inevitably become tourist traps for obvious reasons. It's the last time I'm ever buying Lonely Planet books. (Of course, there's the whole bring-the-hippies-there-and-ruin-the-place thing, which is yet another reason not to buy more Lonely Planet books...)
Rating:
Summary: Equipment Failure
Review: Backpacking in the mountains there is a thing called: equipment failure. It is when your sleeping bag does not keep you warm, even though you are well within the manufacture's temperature rating. It is when your tent leaks, where the manufacture did not get the stitching quite right. Depending on conditions such equipment failure can range from uncomfortable to fatal.Recently I relied on Lonely Planet to bus from Hangzhou to Huangshan. Time after time I found myself muttering to myself: Guide Book Failure!!! Guide Book Failure!!! Guide book failure is normally not fatal.
And if you have a good sense of humor
and are a fairly seasoned traveller
it can be rather interesting
for you meet alot of friendly people who turned out to be very helpful. So, as alot of other people above have pointed out, if you buy Lonely Planet, use it as a door stop, or place it on your coffee table, or press flower in it, but don't rely on it travelwise; and use your money instead to invite a few of the friendly, helpful people you encounter on your trip to China to a coffee, drink or meal. Bon voyage
Rating:
Summary: Equipment Failure
Review: Backpacking in the mountains there is a thing called: equipment failure. It is when your sleeping bag does not keep you warm, even though you are well within the manufacture's temperature rating. It is when your tent leaks, where the manufacture did not get the stitching quite right. Depending on conditions such equipment failure can range from uncomfortable to fatal. Recently I relied on Lonely Planet to bus from Hangzhou to Huangshan. Time after time I found myself muttering to myself: Guide Book Failure!!! Guide Book Failure!!! Guide book failure is normally not fatal.
And if you have a good sense of humor
and are a fairly seasoned traveller
it can be rather interesting
for you meet alot of friendly people who turned out to be very helpful. So, as alot of other people above have pointed out, if you buy Lonely Planet, use it as a door stop, or place it on your coffee table, or press flower in it, but don't rely on it travelwise; and use your money instead to invite a few of the friendly, helpful people you encounter on your trip to China to a coffee, drink or meal. Bon voyage
Rating: 
Summary: There are better guides
Review: China continues to change at a hair-raising pace so I can almost forgive the fact that Lonely Planet can't seem to keep up. Except that it should be able to catch up after three editions yet somehow manages to lag behind even that schedule. I can't forgive at all the snarky attitude of its writers who seem to operate on the principle, "if you don't have anything nice to say, try at least to make it sound witty and superior." The result is usually smug cynicism, which is an unattractive attitude in a traveller, and all the more trying when all you really want to do is find the hotel after 36 hours in hard class. Sometimes I get the feeling these guys don't really like to travel... Rather than simply being obsolete, or imprecise as another reviewer notes, Lonely Planet is often simply inaccurate. How do they do it? I'm not sure. I've had reports that the underpaid and tightly itineraried writers can't always complete their assignments and sometimes rely on second-hand information from other travellers. I've met a German guidebook writer (not lonely planet) who admitted she'd done the same, so it's not all that far-fetched. China can be a frustrating country for budget travellers, particularly those with no other option than train or bus on long journeys. Not much english is spoken, even in the major cities and the whole country appears to operate under alien premises. (These happen to be two of the best reasons to travel there.) However, outdated, imprecise and inaccurate guidebooks just exacerbate the potential frustrations. There are better guidebooks. Consider titles in the Cadogan Guide series, particularly "China: The Silk Routes" by Peter Neville-Hadley. Read the editorial and customer reviews on its Amazon page, which are bang on. Oh, by the way, I took one star off for inaccuracy and two for being unpleasant. China's a tough assignment but it's no reason to get nasty.
Rating: 
Summary: Misses a lot but overall useful for travel in CHina
Review: China is a difficult country to travel in, a fact which the new Lonely Planet China guide makes quite clear. Modern China is rarely exotic and at times quite frustrating for tourists, and the book does not mince words on this subject. However, if you are planning on undertaking some hard independent travel in the PRC, LP is up to the task and contains a lot of very practical information about budget lodging and transportation. LPs main shortcoming, as I see it, is that it concentrates too much on the cities and sites "worth seeing" and not enough on some of the beautiful counytside.
Rating: 
Summary: This is the Guide Book for China
Review: China is a tough trip. No matter how you go, on your own, at tour, a grant whatever...its a tough trip. Some days are ultra rewarding and unforgettable and others can be like Dantes inferno. China is a must trip but it is a mixed bag. its so big and so vast. The Lonely Plant Guide is a must for both before and during. The beginning of the book does an incredible job preparing you for your trip and exposing you to Chinese culture. While there the maps and the listings are extremely helpful and are must reads. The guide is opinionated and most often accurate. I will always remember the description of the Ming tombs as an empty bank vault. They were 100% correct. Its a great book, and a valuable tool to get the most out of your trip. Read Orville Schells Mandate of Heaven and Mark Salzman Iron and Silk, watch To Live and get this book before going to China.
Rating:
Summary: Read before you go but don't pack it with you
Review: China is such a great country both in area and history. I found this relatively small book not as useful as other LP guides for smaller countries or areas. Nearly 1 billion of China's population are farmers and live most of their life in rural, agriculture orient villages. This book just can't cover that part of China well. It might did good enough of covering big cities and modern part of Chinese living but certainly missed out a lot too. You can read this book for getting general information and try to get other LP guides targeting smaller areas. Try LP Southwestern China! commenter lives in a former China ruled island, Taiwan outlying mainland China where now is politically separated from communist China. China and Taiwan both share the traditional Chinese culture.
Rating:
Summary: If you hear of a better book, don't hesitate to buy it!
Review: China is such a huge country that a thorough guide would fill 10 volumes. However, this Lonely Planet guide was extrememely sloppy and often wasted space on unnecessary anecdotes that were supposed to be funny, but provided no useful information- cultural or otherwise. In a country where there is very little English and everying is written in characters, precise directions are very important. This book would say things like "the only English-speaking travel agency is down the street." "The street" would often go on for miles! Would it have killed them to tell you whether it was to the left or the right? Also, we would have really appreciated it if the book had written more important information in Chinese characters. That way, when you are trying to get to the train station or the hospital or something, you could just point to the character instead of attempting to say something they will almost certainly not understand. There are very few choices, but there has to be a better guide book on China somewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Explore China with Lonely Planet
Review: Complex, massive and endlessly fascinating, China has something for everyone. From the splendor of the Great Wall, to the bustle of Beijing, from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, to the deserts of Xinjiang, travelers will find plenty to marvel. Lonely Planet's "China" has long been the guide of choice or independent travelers, and for fifteen years has set the standard for guidebooks to this fascinating country. Completely updated and now in its 6th edition, new features of this best-selling guide include a Chinese arts section, expanded coverage of the south-west provinces and more maps. • more than 210 detailed maps, with keys in English and Chinese script • day walks along the Great Wall • thorough coverage of food and lodging to suit any budget • extensive Chinese language section • details on transportation options countrywide
Rating:
Summary: An arrogant nightmare
Review: I agree with the previous reviewer when he says a) the arrogant tone of previous editions continues here, b) if you have an old edition, there is no need to upgrade, as there isn't much new here as they really don't update much. That second point is particularly egrigious, as there has been so much change in China of late. The most classic example is in the South West of China (there is a separate guidebook for this, which is better, but not much). The guidebook refers to Chengdu as "backpacker's paradise", but I'm here to tell you there are a lot of sorely disappointed backpackers who've wound up in Chengdu on this advice and left pretty quickly. Or tried to leave quickly but couldn't, as while the book tells you that there are 85 trains to different places, it shows there are four different train stations on the map in completely different places in town, wbut never tells you which is the main one or which one you might need to get to to get the heck out of dodge. Other descriptions include bus lines as "luxiourious rulers of the road" when there's not even a bus line in the town. This continues everywhere throughout the book. The Beijing section is *particularly* bad when it comes to listing cheap accomodation anywhere near Tianamen Square. According to the book, it is woefully lacking. But if they'd ever listed YHA hostels (they don't, who knows why), there's more cheap, clean, English speaking beds within walking distance of T-Square than you can imagine. Something like 2000 of them. When I met up with a friend in Beijing and we prepared to get on the Trans-Mongolian out of the country, we didn't even leave this book behind, we actually burned it and did a little dance that we wouldn't have to use it again.
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