Rating: 
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: As a fan of LP I was very dissapointed in this book. It seems like the person who wrote this book has been living in China for a while and is not particularly interested in seeing the sites around town. There were plenty of places to eat, stay and party, but not a lot about the amazing things to see in Beijing.
For examply it had good instructions on how to get to the summer palace, but no info on what you were looking at once you were there, compared to Egypt guide (for example) where you could happily wander around a temple and happily feel that you don't need a tour guide to tell you anything, the Beijing guide had a paragraph or two saying this building and that building are nice.
Also very dissapointing was the history section, As the capital city of a coutry with so much history, old and new, I think that it deserved more than 3 pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Actually, Not Bad!
Review: I found the 2000 version of this guide to be indispensable on a recent trip.Beijing is a city with an incredible amount of things to do and thanks to this guide I was able to get around with ease. The information on attractions was accurate and detailed. For instance it tells you exactly which window sells Forbidden City admission tickets, the exact corner where you can catch a bus to the Badaling Great Wall etc... In addition it had some great recommendations such as the Lao She Tea House. The maps in this guide were not very detailed but were adequate as long as you stuck to the major streets and attractions. One thing the maps have going for them is that major street and places of interest are labeled with Chinese characters, making communication with Taxi drivers a lot easier. The description of the airport shuttle bus routes is confusing - it could have been so much easier had they drawn the bus route on the map. The restaurant recommendations are lame and inaccurate and a couple of the hotels that it mentions were already out of business. Despite some shortcoming, I would rate it as one of the better LP guides that I have used.
Rating:
Summary: A snide, critical book for those not planning to visit.
Review: I have been a big fan of the LP guides, up to now. I have used them for more than ten years, with great pleasure. This one takes a snide, critical, wiseguy tone, as if the writer didn't really like China much and thinks you won't either.Guides are supposed to show you how to enjoy a place, not load you down with critical material. A sadly deficient departure from LP's previous level of quality.
Rating: 
Summary: LP guide to Beijing
Review: I have used this book on a six day trip to Beijing over Xmas 1999. In my opinion the July 1998 edition of this book is too far out of date, and contains an unacceptable level of inaccuracies and inconsistencies. I would also endorse the previous reviewer's comments about the tone of the book, although I would say that a 'right on' sneering attitude seems to be written into too many Lonely Planet books and Rough Guides in general. This book is not worth buying in its July 1998 (3rd) edition. It needs to be completely rewritten and not reissued in a 4th edition.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible Guidebook
Review: I returned from Beijing last week after spending about 2 weeks in the city. I had and used the Lonely Planet Beijing guidebook extensively. It was at least partially wrong about almost everything. Museums, resteraunts, and other things it recommended were closed. Every phone number was wrong. The guidebook lacked useful information about how to get places, how to orient self, and hours of an establishment. Also, the guidebook was judgmental. I think it is the worst guidebook I've ever used.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible Guidebook
Review: I returned from Beijing last week after spending about 2 weeks in the city. I had and used the Lonely Planet Beijing guidebook extensively. It was at least partially wrong about almost everything. Museums, resteraunts, and other things it recommended were closed. Every phone number was wrong. The guidebook lacked useful information about how to get places, how to orient self, and hours of an establishment. Also, the guidebook was judgmental. I think it is the worst guidebook I've ever used.
Rating: 
Summary: This book gets a bad rap, but buy your own map.
Review: I think the other raters have been vastly overcritical in their assessments of this book. True, the tone of the book is somewhat cynical, but I found it nonetheless to be invaluable in a solo two-week trip to China in June. Robert Storey is very knowledgeable on China, Beijing in particular, and I found most of what was written to be quite accurate. I had two problems with the book. First, the book (at least the version I received) was outdated. It's hard to blame the publisher though, given the rate of change in the city. Second, the maps in the book are pretty bad. Make sure you get a better map to supplement what's in the middle of the book. In fact, ignore the maps altogether.
Rating:
Summary: This book gets a bad rap, but buy your own map.
Review: I think the other raters have been vastly overcritical in their assessments of this book. True, the tone of the book is somewhat cynical, but I found it nonetheless to be invaluable in a solo two-week trip to China in June. Robert Storey is very knowledgeable on China, Beijing in particular, and I found most of what was written to be quite accurate. I had two problems with the book. First, the book (at least the version I received) was outdated. It's hard to blame the publisher though, given the rate of change in the city. Second, the maps in the book are pretty bad. Make sure you get a better map to supplement what's in the middle of the book. In fact, ignore the maps altogether.
Rating:
Summary: Good, frank travel review.
Review: In contrast to another reader's review who thinks all travel books should have a positive slant, I enjoyed the frank criticisms - they make me put more trust in the author's recommendations. This has usual tourist information such as places to stay, eat, visit and shop, but also lots of unique info on things such as toilets, spitting and hygiene. I find this book much more useful than the "cookie cutter" travel guides such as Fodors.
Rating:
Summary: Good city guide, getting worse
Review: In general, I consider Lonely Planet (LP) as one of the best publishers which excels in thick, detailed guide books that describes in "text" the best attributes of a city or country. LP is not a book with pretty tourist stock photos. If you want pretty pictures, I recommend the Insight Guides which have at least 1 per page. After looking at a half dozen Beijing (BJ) city guides, this book excels again in describing Zhongguancun, where others fail. Zhongguancun, (Zgc) is like a Chinese Silicon Valley, or computer business development area near Beijing and Qinghua Universities (p149-50) in the older 3rd edition. Zgc is an important hi-tech area for tycoons, business, and consumers alike to find computers and software localized for China. It is located in the Haidian District, NW Beijing, near Haidian Rd and Zgc Rd following the 4th Ring Rd, far outside the Metro ring. Zgc is just south of the Old Summer Palace area. This area is probably best accessible by bicycle, taxi, light rail, and bus. It is about 4 miles (6km) NW of the northwestern-most metro ring station at Xizhimen. Zgc is listed in the index. In the Insight Guide (p198), I saw a Zizhimen light rail stop about 1 mile away from Zgc. LP/BJ 3rd ed (0-86442-547-3), also has a two maps to get a good view of Zgc and the downtown districts, Map 3 for overall Beijing and 10 for the Haidian district. Map 10 also shows the Zgc bus stop with nearby hotels, restaurants, internet cafe, brewery, and universities. This edition has 11 maps. However in LP/BJ 4th ed (1-86450-144-8), Zgc is still listed (p53). Zgc is lost in the maps with only 7 maps, ersatz replaced with 20 pages of pretty stock tourist pictures. I believe LP's editors have stepped in the wrong direction here. Lets hope that they get it right before the 08 Olympics. I read this in the local library. I noticed that LP/BJ 5th ed (1740592816), with a new author is scheduled to be released this month, 10/02.
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