National Public Radio's Beijing correspondent Rob Gifford recounts his travels along Route 312, the Chinese Mother Road, the longest route in the world's most populous nation. Based on his successful NPR radio series, China Road draws on Gifford's twenty years of observing first-hand this rapidly transforming country, as he travels east to west, from Shanghai to China's border with Kazakhstan. As he takes the reader on this journey, he will also take us through China's past and present while he tries to make sense of this complex nation's potential future.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
very bias:
the author is "tired of the optimistics" as he stated in the book. all he wanted to show is the negative side of view although part of them probably were true. if you really want to know a true china, you need to explore yourself broadly but not from anyone who only tells you what he wants you to know.
A great book:
I was tasked with an unclassified China Culture Brief for our squadron's Commander's Call. I used many of Rob Gifford's facts, stories, and analysis, all of which went over well. His story about the great wall petering out around the Hexi Corridor got my mind churning on how useless the wall really was (and the feasibility of other countries walls, for that matter.) His description of how SW and NW China are not really the China that westerners have in mind was very eye opening. How Rob encountered... more info
Fascinating profile of China today:
I read this book while teaching school in China Summer 2008. It was a very interesting depiction of the dichotomies in China today - on the one hand the official word and on the other the curiosity and interest of the people in everything western. It was a book that made me think a lot about what I was seeing and what my students were saying. Gifford very accurately and clearly points out the options that face China in the near future and manages to give what seemed to me an unbiased view of both sides of... more info
China Road - trip into the minds of the populace:
Rob Gifford presents an insightful journey into the hearts of the hearts and minds of the Chinese citizens he interviews on his travels down Route 312. He also provides historical information on how China got where it is today, and his prediction on how the country will evolve in the future. His observations help outsiders understand the ever evolving mixture of loosening economical control with the maintenance of a communist political structure, and the risks it presents to China's future. Overall, an... more info
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