Asia Books - Page 6

Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 2

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For four decades Sources of Chinese Tradition has served to introduce Western readers to Chinese civilization as it has been seen through basic writings and historical documents of the Chinese themselves. Now in its second edition, revised and extended through Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin­era China, this classic volume remains unrivaled for its wide selection of source readings on history, society, and thought in the world´s largest nation. Award-winning China scholar Wm. Theodore de Bary -who edited the first edition in 1960 -and his coeditor Richard Lufrano have revised and updated the second volume of Sources to reflect the interactions of ideas, institutions, and historical events from the seventeenth century up to the present day.
Beginning with Qing civilization and continuing to contemporary times, volume II brings together key source texts from more than three centuries of Chinese history, with opening essays by noted China authorities providing context for readers not familiar with the period in question.
Here are just a few of the topics covered in this second volume of Sources of Chinese Tradition:
· Early Sino-Western contacts in the seventeenth century;
· Four centuries of Chinese reflections on differences between Eastern and Western civilizations;
· Nineteenth- and twentieth-century reform movements, with treatises on women´s rights, modern science, and literary reform;
· Controversies over the place of Confucianism in modern Chinese society;
· The nationalist revolution -including readings from Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek;
· The communist revolution -with central writings by Mao Zedong;
· Works from contemporary China -featuring political essays from Deng Xiaoping and dissidents including Wei Jingsheng.
With more than two hundred selections in lucid, readable translation by today´s most renowned experts on Chinese language and civilization, Sources of Chinese Tradition will continue to be recognized as the standard for source readings on Chinese civilization, an indispensable learning tool for scholars and students of Asian civilizations.

Annapurna

Maurice Herzog

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An Amazing Story of Incredible Human Endurance 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Wow! This is one of those real life adventure stories that has you wondering how much more the people can endure before they collapse and die. These guys climbed one of the world's most difficult mountains with old climbing technology. What they lacked in modern equipment, they made up for with strength and fitness. The more I read about mountaineering, the more I agree that it is 75% mental and 25% physical. Being in the best physical condition possible definitely gives you a better opportunity for success on high ground. If you liked this book, I encourage you to read my book "Rocky Mountain Adventure Collection". Best wishes on your adventures in life!

Editorial Review:

In 1950, no mountain higher than 8,000 meters had ever been climbed. Maurice Herzog and other members of the French Alpine Club had resolved to try. Their goal was a 26,493-foot Himalayan peak called Annapurna. But unlike other climbs, which draw on the experience of prior reconnaissance, the routes up Annapurna had never been analyzed before. Herzog and his team had to locate the mountain using sketchy, crude maps, pick out a single, untried route, and go for the summit. Annapurna is the unforgettable account of this dramatic and heroic climb, and of its harrowing aftermath. Although Herzog and his comrade Louis Lachenal reached the mountain's summit, their descent was a nightmare of frostbite, snow blindness, and near death. With grit and courage manifest on every page, Herzog's narrative is one of the great mountain-adventure stories of all time.

Frommer's Japan (Frommer's Complete)

Beth Reiber, Janie Spencer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Frommer's Japan 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It is difficult to get really good uptodate travel books about countries in the far east. This book is good but not excellant. Just too many changes taking place especailly in countries like Japan. We found we could rely on information and data about historical landmarks and areas. Hotel and restaurant iformation changes so quickly you may be better off going to the internet.

Editorial Review:

America’s #1 bestselling travel series

Written by more than 175 outspoken travelers around the globe, Frommer’s Complete Guides help travelers experience places the way locals do.

• More annually updated guides than any other series

• 16-page color section and foldout map in all annual guides

• Outspoken opinions, exact prices, and suggested itineraries

• Dozens of detailed maps in an easy-to-read, two-color design

Tourism to Japan increased by 12% over the first half of 2007. Half a million tourists were North Americans, of which approximately 100,000 were traveling on business.

China (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

DK Publishing

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Subjects -> Travel -> Guidebook Series -> Eyewitness -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A must for any traveler 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The eyewitness travel series is the book of choice for any travel. And the China version doesn't miss.

I traveled to China for vacation 2.5 years ago when I didn't have the Eyewitness guide. I got a good sense of my travels a the time by reading multiple books and asking my guide many questions.

However in my trip this year...I had the Eyewitness guide. It not only strengthened my understanding of the many places, events, and culture which I experienced 2.5 years ago...it prepared me to open my eyes to a whole new world when I traveled in 2007.

What sets DK apart is that it gives you not only practical information...But provide maps/pictures/illustrations which other's cannot present. And this is all that much important for the Western traveler where China is still in the process of fine tuning tourism and how sights are communicated to visitors.

I recommend Eyewitness guides not only for any vacation...but especially for travels to China.

Editorial Review:

The DK travel guide helps you to get the most out of your trip to China, providing expert recommendations as well as detailed practical information. The opening chapter Introducing China maps the country and sets it in its historical and cultural context. Each of the seven regional sections is divided into area chapters that cover from one to three provinces each. Here you will find descriptions of the most important sights with maps, pictures and illustrations. Hotel and restaurant recommendations can be found in Travelers Needs . The Survival Guide contains practical information on everything from transport personal safety.

Come, reza, ama / Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Spanish Edition)

Elizabeth Gilbert

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for "balancing." These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert's exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, "It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work.'" The New Yorker© Gilbert s prose is fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible. -The New York Times Book Review A meditation on love in its many forms love of food, language, humanity, God, and most meaningful for Gilbert, love of self. -Los Angeles Times
Description In Spanish: Después de un divorcio traumático seguido de un desengaño amoroso y en plena crisis emocional y espiritual, Elizabeth Gilbert decide empezar de nuevo y emprende un largo viaje que la llevará sucesivamente a Italia, la India e Indonesia, tres escalas geográficas que se corresponden con otras tantas etapas de búsqueda interior. Este libro es la bitácora de esa doble travesía, en la que la autora descubrirá el placer sensual de la buena mesa y la buena conversación (la dolce vita romana), la paz interior alcanzada mediante la meditación en Bombay y, por fin, el deseado equilibrio entre cuerpo y espíritu en Bali. Lúcida y valiente novela autobiográfica que ha sido un gran éxito de ventas desde su publicación en Estados Unidos, Comer, rezar, amar trata de lo que ocurre cuando decidimos ser artífices de nuestra felicidad y dejamos de intentar vivir según los modelos que nos imponen. Elegido por el New Tork Times entre los cien libros relevantes de 2006, este diario personal es también una intensa y divertida reflexión sobre el amor y las muchas formas que puede adoptar.

Arabian Sands (Penguin Classics)

Wilfred Thesiger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The magnificent obsession 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The Rub Al Khali, the Empty Quarter, or as the Arabs called it, The Sands, is one of the most inhospitable places on earth, and one of the least populated as a result. Like Mt. Everest, or the South Pole, each of which became the obsession of some men, sometimes costing them their lives, the Empty Quarter became an obsession of Wilfred Thesiger. He was not the first Westerner to cross it, Bertrand Thomas was, in the `30's, and then Harry (Abdullah) St. John Philby after him, but Thesiger is deservedly the most famous, due to this wonderful account that is difficult to put down. His birth and childhood in Abyssinia, in 1910, the son of the first British Ambassador, seems to have marked him for the "path less traveled." To fully appreciate "Arabian Sands,' it helps to have read "The Life of My Choice," his autobiography.

The first part of "Arabian Sands" covers his youth in Africa, and his initial desert trips in Dhaufar, and in the Danakil country. The end of the book involves his travels in then "forbidden" Oman. The heart of his story though, is his two epic crossing of The Sands. Unlike other Westerner explorers, he was unsupported in his efforts, by other Westerners, save for the financial support of the British Anti-Locust Board. He had to live by his wits, establishing firm and trusting relationships with his beloved Bedouin (Bedu) who were the essential element in his success. In so doing, he developed an understanding of the conditions of their very harsh life, and enthusiastically emulated them. In addition to coming to terms with the "ship of the desert," the camel, and adapting to the rhythms of desert travel with such transport, he also had to stay one step ahead of central authorities, and deal with the tribal politics, which invariably meant that some tribes would be hostile to both him, and his traveling companions solely for tribal reasons. Furthermore, since he was not a Muslim, he had to deal with those individuals and tribes who were hostile due solely to his non-adherence to their religion and beliefs, but Thesiger was wise enough to realize that much of the hostility resulted from the fact that all the other Westerners who were exploring were looking for oil, and the natives feared a loss of their land - it was hard for them, or even most Westerners to understand his motives of doing it solely "because it was there." After his second crossing he was arrested in the town of Sulaiyil by adherents of the Ikhwan, the fundamentalist brotherhood that very well may have made an "example" of him, "to encourage the others", and executed him. It was only the direct intervention of his friend, Philby, with the Saudi king, Abdul Aziz, which secured his release.

The book contains numerous excellent maps, which outline his trips, as well as the tribal areas. It also includes some excellent black and white photographs, many of them of his traveling companions. On a personal note, he inspired a passion to visit Yabrin, on the northern edge of the Empty Quarter, and I was able to see it develop into a significant town, over a 23 year period, a far cry from the absolute absence of people at this oasis when he passed through in 1948.

I couldn't give the book a 5-star however. As one other reviewer indicated, it would help if we looked a bit at the man himself, and his reference frame. The book was written around 12 years after the events, and he admits to not maintaining accurate notes, so how much was changed in his memory? Certainly he experienced "comradeship," like men do in war, but does that mean we should have wars for this experience? It seemed that he unduly romanticized the hardship, and bemoaned that the bedu would loose their remarkable way of life with the coming impact of the modern world. And there is no question that there are only a few real bedu left on the Arabian peninsula, as they have enthusiastically embraced the conveniences of the modern world in the subsequent 60 years. It should be noted that Thesiger carefully picked the timings of his travels, to do so only in the winter. If he had spent a couple of summers with the bedu, I strongly suspect that much of his romanticism would have evaporated, and the hum of an air-conditioner would be much appreciated. Also, there may have been more than an aversion to the modern material world behind his passion for the remote areas of yore - throughout his life, including his days in Kenya at the end, there was always a youthful companion with him.

Setting aside these caveats, and realizing that the prism may be distorted, his achievements are remarkable, and we are fortunate to have an enthralling narrative of this vanished way of life.

Editorial Review:

Arabian Sands is Wilfred Thesiger’s record of his extraordinary journey through the parched “Empty Quarter” of Arabia. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life—“the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets.” In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels. His now-classic account is invaluable to understanding the modern Middle East.

Frommer's Israel

Robert Ullian

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go--they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us! Israel is an endlessly fascinating destination, a crossroads for different cultures and religions, and "Frommer's Israel" is an invaluable guide to this intriguing and complex land. It's written by an expert author, who provides you with sensitive and authoritative coverage of the region's historic and religious sites, and offers valuable insights into its culture. With Frommer's in hand, you'll explore the ancient and holy sites of Jerusalem, the silent majesty of the desert, the beach resorts of Tel-Aviv, and much more. We'll also show you how to have a world-class adventure, from diving in the Red Sea to exploring the stunning caves at Petra, in nearby Jordan. With detailed practical tips on dining, etiquette, bargaining, communicating, and getting around, "Frommer's Israel" is the only guide you'll need to explore this amazing land.

The Holy Land: An Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Easity the best 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book is filled with the knowledge of vast experience and travel. If you want a book that doesn't just give the religiously naive and superstitious what they want to hear (like so many do), then this is your book. Excellent in several ways.

Invaluable 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Recommended to me by an archaeolgist long active in Israel, I found this book quite helpful in appreciating a number of sites (and sights) I recently visited (and saw) in the Holy Land. For folks who are looking to learn more about various ancient sites than the typical tour guide can offer, this will be well worth its price. In addition to its being informative, I found the personality of its author evident and engaging.

Editorial Review:

This concise, witty, and readable guide is an ideal companion for travelers to the Holy Land. Based on Murphy-O'Connor's many years of directing archaeological field trips, this guide gives clear directions about how to find sites and monuments of interest, from Stone Age Caves and Roman roads to the grandiose buildings of Herod the Great and Byzantine churches and synagogues. This new edition has maps and detailed site plans on nearly every page and includes the reports of the most recent excavations. As well as treating the sites that everyone should see, Murphy-O'Connor encourages visitors to leave the beaten track to discover the amazing variety of the Holy Land's cultural riches.

Turkey (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

DK Publishing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A little light on the content 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

The guide has beautiful pictures, but I found it a little lacking in content, especially for the Ephesus area. If you are going on a cruise and stopping in Kusadasi as we did, we wanted information on the Kusadasi and Ephesus areas, including how to navigate ourselves through town, what the highlights are (where to focus our time) and how to get there, as well as some historical and background information. The little information this book did provide on Ephesus was something any taxi driver could have told us.

Good Supplement to a Human Guide 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book looks nice, feels nice, and I suppose might taste nice. However, after living in Turkey for a year I found this book to be lacking in practical information. Eyewitness guides seemed to be geared more towards the tourist-on-a-tour rather than a person trying to make it on their own. There are three reasons I say this:
1) The hotel information is mainly for nicer establishments and there are not many listed.
2) The pictures are really nice, but there is not a lot of cultural, historical, or instructional information.
3) The book is really heavy making it a pain to carry around.

I also owned the Lonely Planet Turkey book and loved it, I would recommend it over the Eyewitness Guide. It got me to where I wanted to go and I found most of the information to be accurate. People I worked with also liked the Rough Guide of Turkey.

One other suggestion, if you are just headed to Istanbul, or plan to be in the country for a long period of time I would purchase both a Turkey guide and an Istanbul guide in order to save having to carry around a huge guidebook to the entire country.

Editorial Review:

From Greek and Roman ruins such as Ephesus to busting bazaars to virgin beaches, this guide brings the reader the best that Turkey has to offer. Includes extensive coverage of the different quarters of Istanbul and highlights places such as Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

Trans-Siberian Handbook: Seventh Edition of the Guide to the World's Longest Railway Journey (Trailblazer Guides)

Bryn Thomas

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Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With over 90,000 copies now sold, this is the most popular Trans-Siberian guidebook. A trip across Siberia on the longest continuous railway track in the world is undoubtedly the journey of a lifetime. It's also a convenient way to reach China, Mongolia, or Japan. Tickets are not expensive or difficult to arrange. Readers can now travel almost anywhere they want in Siberia: we tell them how to organize a trip, where to get tickets, and where to go.

>Kilometer-by-kilometer route guide -- covering the entire routes of the Trans-Siberian, Trans-Manchurian, and Trans-Mongolian railways with thirty-eight strip maps in English, Russian, and Chinese: readers can see where they are as they travel
>Siberia and the railway -- the detailed history of Siberia, the construction of the railway and the running of the Trans-Siberian today are of great interest not only to visitors but also to armchair travelers
>City guides with maps -- the best sights, places to stay, and restaurants for all budgets: Moscow, St Petersburg, Ulan Bator, Beijing, and twenty-three towns in Siberia
>Nutshell information on Minsk, Berlin, Baltic Republics, Helsinki, Hong Kong, and Tokyo
>Rail fares and timetables
>Seventh edition includes seventy maps
>Plus Russian and Chinese phrases