China: The Rough Guide

Last Updated: September 14, 1998
Jeremy Atiyah, David Leffman, and Simon Lewis, China: The Rough Guide, Penguin, 1997. ISBN 1-85828-225-X

Summary

I bought this book as a replacement for my stolen Lonely Planet book. Overall, the book is a reasonable travel guide for China, but I preferred The Lonely Planet.

The Rough Guide does mention a case of cultural cannibalism that occurred in 1968 during the cultural revolution. When Beijing heard the stories, it sent in the army to stop it - but not before 500 people were eaten. The Rough Guide cites From Cannibalism to Karaoke by John Gittings as its source. However, as interesting as this sounds, I was unable to find the book either at our library or at Amazon books (although John Gittings has written a lot on China), so take this 2 paragraph story with a grain of salt.

But...

I found it difficult to find things in this book, and it's listings didn't seem as complete as some of the other books. For example, while it lists the Ming Tombs, it doesn't mention the Qing Tombs. China Index