Is this book more than just a treasure chest for those who are enthusiastic about China?

Matteo Ricci is a Jesuit priest from Italy. He arrives at the Portuguese outpost of Macao in the second half of the 16th century, determined to carry Christianity into China. The Jesuits would very much like to get..

Is this book still banned in China, and if so, can this decision be at all justified?

Liao Yiwu is a Chinese writer and political activist who takes interest in the lives of the less fortunate around him. He meets up with different kinds of people all over the country and interviews them. He talks to those who..

Is this book just about a physical feat, or is there something more meaningful to it?

In the mid-80s, Englishman William Lindesay is primarily a jogger who has a thing for maps. He sets his eye on the Great Wall of China and comes up with a plan to span the entire thing on foot. He would be the first foreigner to ever..

An instant classic about China?

US-citizen Peter Hessler works as a correspondent for The New Yorker in Beijing. He gets a driver’s license and drives a rental car along some parts of the Great Wall, he rents a house in a small village in the mountains East of Beijing, and he chronicles..

Why should young people from China read this today, more than one generation later?

In 1973, the People’s Republic of China is slowly starting to open up to „imperialists“ from the West. US-President Nixon and his aide Henry Kissinger have been warmly received, and now a select..

Are all defectors automatically liars, and which version of the truth do we choose to believe?

Some time in the 1950s, Li Zhisui gets a job in Beijing as Mao Zedong’s personal physician. Actually, it’s not so much about „getting“ a job, but more like he’s being assigned a position whether he wants it or..

Was this dude the most educated of all 19th-century explorers?

Albert von Le Coq is a German archaeologist and explorer who ventures into Central Asia, much like Sven Hedin or Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky before him, in order to..

Are we looking at a career-obsessed explorer or at a blueprint for Indiana Jones?

At the height of the Great Game between the Russian Empire and the British Empire, Swedish explorer Sven Hedin decides to follow in the footsteps of Ferdinand von Richthofen (who coined the term “Silk Road”) and Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky. He thus embarks on an epic journey through those parts of Northwestern China that were unknown or scarcely explored until then

A must-read for people interested in travel in China?

Whenever I pick up an old book, like something written during the 19th or 18th century, I feel myself hesitating for a moment, suspecting it to be another slow and painful read. But this one was a pleasant..

What better person to tell you stories about China than the Emperor’s personal tutor?

Reginald Fleming Johnston is probably best known for his role as private tutor to the young Emperor of China, Puyi. Obviously, he was fluent in Mandarin and knew his way around..

Are the errors in this book due to poor editing or is this guy an expert who doesn’t know his craft?

Rob Gifford is a journalist with some 20 years of experience in China who decides to travel along the National Road 312 from Shanghai all the way to Khorgas on the border to Kazakhstan. This book is a compilation of some of his experiences on that trip, as well as..

Is this a book about three ladies taking it slow, or is it an epic adventure?

Mildred Cable and two other British ladies working for the China Inland Mission decide to take it upon themselves to spread the gospel in the Western territories of Gansu and Xinjiang. They undertake several journeys by caravan, talk to the locals, and eventually..

Would this book have been any better if he had done with a little less irony?

It is 1935, and China is deeply tangled up in the resistance against the Japanese occupation and the inner conflict between the Nationalists and the Communists. In February, Peter Fleming arrives in Beijing and meets up with..

An author trying to get his points across?

Ernst Cordes is a Chinese-born German (apparently the son of an official) who is living in China during the period of the Republic. It remains unclear what exactly he is doing there, but he is fluent in Mandarin, and he keeps quite a few..

Is it still a good book if we have to dig through poetic wordiness and outdated travel advice?

We’re in the 1980s, and German adventurer Achill Moser is in his early thirties. He embarks on two different trips through China, one of which is going to take him on foot from Turpan to Dunhuang in the Gobi desert, the other one..

Can this book be interesting to anyone except China-enthusiasts?

it’s the first year of the 20th century, and Karl Boy-Ed is a lieutenant of the German army in Beijing. He sees a bit of the city and of its surroundings, and he takes part in the defense of the foreign quarters against the..

What’s wrong with the diplomatic approach to writing about a foreign culture?

In the mid-70s, German diplomat Erwin Wickert gets transferred from Romania to China. He has been there before (as a tourist in the 1930s), and he seems excited about it. He stays in Beijing for 4 years, lives through..

Can a seasoned diplomat really be this naive, or is he just cleverly conning his readership?

Henry Kissinger, a diplomat working for the Nixon administration, gets dispatched to the People’s Republic of China in order to prepare for a rapprochement of the United States and the PRC. Over the next few decades, he..

Why is Polly Greeks‘ book so much better than that of Nathan Hoturoa Gray?

In 2001, Polly Greeks is working as a journalist in New Zealand. She does and interview with Nathan Hoturoa Gray (who at the time is trying to walk the length of the Great Wall), falls in love with him and..

Was this book meant for those interested in the history of Sino-European relations?

Today, George, Earl Of Macartney is most widely known for his role as the first official envoy of Britain to China. He arrived there in 1793, apparently refusing to kowtow before Emperor Qianlong, and when he tried to establish trade relations, he eventually failed..

Is China absurd, or does absurdity really reside in those who are always looking for the absurd?

Oliver Lutz Radtke is a German Sinologist – a scholar of Chinese culture. He has spent a considerable length of time in China, and now he’s here to tell us about it: Oliver Lutz Radtke on a plane with Chinese travelers, Oliver Lutz Radtke in language class, Oliver Lutz Radtke in a..

How could an awesome feat like this turn into such an uninspiring book?

In the early 1900s, right before the downfall of the Qing Empire, Edwin John Dingle is a British journalist who comes up with the idea to traverse China on foot. He lands in Shanghai, takes a ship to Chongqing, and starts walking..

What happens to a travel story when you get caught up in old books and theories?

Ding Haixiao is a twenty-something Chinese travel writer who embarks on a trip to the Chinese Northwest. He hitches rides most of the way, sometimes alone and sometimes together with different travel companions whom he either already knows or gets to know on the road. He seems to have a strong liking for anthropology and philosophy, and he is..

Did this guy just hate China or did he want to satirically show how much can you brown nose a dictator?

Rewi Alley has been a friend of Communist China for some decades, living comfortably (and rather overweight) in a special compound in Beijing, when in 1966 he embarks on several trips through the country. His aim: to document..