Beijing

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View books by Damian Harper.

This guide was next to useless - written by the Great Wally? - Rated
I recently visited Beijing for a 7 day end of holiday stopover.

Although the LP guide highlighted several very interesting sights, too often the maps in the back did not display sufficient detail to enable easy navigation. Lots of places were described, but then not marked on the maps (e.g. the place to catch the boat to the Summer Palace was not on the map).

We wasted a whole morning trying to follow vague directions on how to get to the Great Wall by train and bus - but gave up in the end after being pursued by Great Wall minibus hawkers who refused to be bartered down to sensible prices and went with the offer from our youth hostel.

Not one of the entrance prices quoted in the guide for a main attraction was within 40% of the actual price.

The guide's idea of a good meal out in Beijing seemed to be either a European or American restaurant, or a Peking Duck specialist. What visitor to a city famous for its excellent cuisine is going to want to know where the best French restaurant in town is? The book guided us to a lack-lustre market off the main shopping street for one of our eveing meals, though the next day we found streets full of restaurants that were entirely missed by the the guide.

All of the shopping suggestions were the main tourist destinations - which made bartering much harder.

We had a fabulous week in Beijing, but not because of the Lonely Planet Guide. Look for a guide by another company, this one is worse than helpful as you waste time and energy pursuing badly researched items.

Out-dated guide to Beijing - Rated
I too have never been let down by Lonely Planet's guidebooks... until now. It is not the fault of lonely planet that this book is of little use for a visitor to the city as Beijing is constantly changing due to an immense development programme prior to the Olympics. I feel that I can give a good account of this guide as I have lived here now for 7 months, am competant in the language and have a sound knowledge of the city.

Here is a blow by blow account of the book's strengths and weaknesses:

1. For guide information (ie excursions to the Great Wall and Summer Palace etc) it is pretty useful and comprehensive.

2. However the pricing information is way off the mark for tickets to attractions (eg, the admittance ticket to the military museaum cost 20RMB, NOT 5RMB) and the maps are out of date and to not cover the detail required.

3. You will have no trouble finding a place to stay (if you have some cash to burn though). However, there is not enough information about cheaper places to bed down. The focus tends to be mostly on top end places which may be off the budget for a traveller.

3. If you want a night out on the town, this book is useless. All the bars have been knocked down from the main Sanlitun Bar area which was formerly (as depicted in the guide) located to the South. I spent hours when I first got here trying to find places that were not as depicted in the maps. If you are visiting short-term, this will prove very frustrating. In fact, few of the best bars are covered, and I think only two decent nightclubs when in fact there are a number of cool places that attract International DJ's such as Sasha, Deep Dish, Oakenfold etc.

For a night out, pick up Time Out Magazine or Thats Beijing when you get here from a hotel, or a decent western establishment (if you can find one with this guide).

The author didn't get out too much I reckon.

4. The shopping guide could also do with a revamp. It is out of date and could do with deviating away from the obvious.

....and brighten it up, its the dullest read ever.

In defence of this book, I will state that it will be tough for you to find any decent guide book on Beijing until you get here.

I suggest that for the next edition, Lonely Planet research this a lot more.

Make your decision!

Not up to Lonely Planet standards - Rated
Before I start, I have to say that I travel everywhere on the back of Lonely Planet Guidebooks. If I get on a plane, it's never without one of these helpful guides and they've been my saviour many times over.

However, on this occassion I have to say that I was really disappointed by the level of detail in both the maps and instructions. On several occassions I found myself in downtown Beijing scratching my head looking at the book.

I did waste several hours wandering around the Hutong, trying to find restaurants, bars and other places of interest. When trying to buy tickets from a theatre the guidebook map was clear enough, but the book was no help when it came to finding the Box Office, which on this occassion was located down a side alley towards the back of the theatre.

Little details like these are what have always made LP Guidebooks the best available, but in this version, were sadly lacking.