 |
|
Title: Frommer's Beijing (Frommer's Complete)
ISBN: 0470175931
Author:
Jen Lin-Liu
Sherisse Pham
Publicate Date: 2008-02-19
Publish: 2008-02-19
List Price: $16.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.65
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $8.64
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.55
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: Don't go to Beijing without it!
I went to Beijing for the Olympics; bought every travel guide I could find. This travel guide was far better than all of them. The restaurant recommendations, though sparse, were right on. Very handy to have so I could show the Mandarin characters to the cab drivers. This guide was so invaluable, I lost one of the subway and had Amazon.com deliver a replacement to my hotel! FYI, I have both the 2007 and 2008 version, the 2008 version is FAR better than the 2007. This book made my trip far more enjoyable.
|
2: Great Resource at the Hotel
There are a lot of travel guides, and I particularly like the Frommer's guides because they take care to include a handful of very local experiences in each category that are generally difficult to find and more rewarding than a typical tour-bus barrage.
I also like them because I am familiar with their layout and know the basic biases of the reviewers (skewed luxury, where there are several multi-hundred dollar a night hotels and just a handful of cheaper accommodations), but one inconvenience is that the book marks you as a tourist and is a bit hard to carry if you're trying to navigate Beijing without a fanny pack. I've always wished they had an electronic guide - like the iPhone app they have for San Francisco. The closest I have found is the hoodhot travel Beijing taxi guide, which works great for finding the Chinese addresses to the stuff you see in the book.
|
3: Books can't keep up with China
This book is pretty good on the basics but it quickly becomes apparent that either the editors are not working hard enough to keep up with changes or China is changing to fast to keep up with or both.
For example- the subway system in Beijing is sparkling new, with English signs and announcements and electronic tickets. Completely different from the description provided in the guidebook.
For history and background it is a good resource.
|
4: Good book to buy
Small enough to take w/you on the trip but enough content to read ahead of time to get familiar with Beijing. Would have given 5 stars if it had more/better maps.
|
|
|
|
|
