It is refreshing to see a travel book that is as well integrated, considering the publisher is undergoing a transformation in their editorial dept to include costlier photos. The book's descriptions are diverse in central city, suburbs, provincial environs, as well as covering common aspects of China travel. Lots of practical advice and categorizing tourist expenses into budget, medium priced, & first class. This book has 22 pgs of photos and 9 maps with marked key lists. The photos go well beyond the media touristy stock photos to include children, people at work, everyday scenes, empty freeways, but no massive bicycle or bus traffic jams which I'm sure exists.

About the first half of the book included general history and descriptions, getting there, and getting aclimated. Then the back half of the book has specific discussions on diverse topics from the usual hotel, eats, and entertainment, to shopping, expat & gay bars, and children's activities. There are many warnings that all things in Shanghai are expensive, more than the US. There are day excursions to famous Suzhou (Venice of the East) and Hangzhou (West Lake) which are very touristy with the natives. There is only one visit "off the beaten path" to Putuoshan, an island and overnight ferry about 150mi SE.

The book is well made to stand the rigors of travel, bound in signatures, so pages and maps won't drop out after the spine has flexed with rough use, or maps can be carefully razored out for separate pocket use. The 8-page language section has the essentials, including the word for toilet and toilet paper and the men and women characters on p57. I wonder if pronunciations can also be given in Shanghainese dialect as it appears to be Mandarin.

The most objectionable format issue was the 6 pages of publisher's advertisements (p212-218) which were stuck between the glossary and index, and maps with site lists at the end. These adverts should be placed in the foreword or left out. And the inside of the front and back covers are non-functional, adverts in front and metric conversions in back. They could have been maps and not-to-be-missed sites. And the metric conversions did not include conversion of area, esp sq meters to sq ft and sq km to sq miles.

Having read Yatsko's New Shanghai (0-471-84352-0, 2001), which has no maps and only 4 pgs of stock pixs, I was anxious to see more. I was pleasantly surprised. When trying to locate the famous Fudan University, however, I was disappointed that there was nothing in the index, which is a scanty 4 pages, with only a few Chinese locations. After scanning the map's key lists which are not indexed, the only Fudan U entry was the last entry on the last page. This turned out to be wrong. In the Harvard U based Let's Go China (0312270348, 2001, p281), I found an obscure reference to take Bus 910 to Wujiaochang, a NE suburb as discussed on p63. Only after looking at the MapQuest-like city map at ShanghaiGuidedotcom did I find Fudan U's location, whose own website had a campus map in Chinese and no street address or directions, a common mistake with website designers. Wujiaochang is a traffic circle, like in DC and Boston. Fudan U is just west of it on Handan Lu. Fudan U could have been marked on Map 3, which includes Tongji U and Shanghai Normal U. This area needs to be emphasized of its location and proximity to the Pudong SEZ.

As a reader of the author's prior co-authored book, Odyssey's Uzbekistan (962-217-582-1, 99), I considered it excellent in photography and description guides and sidebar stories.

As a feature LP has a website to support its books, however the support area is not linked from the home page. Only after searching LonelyPlanetDotcom was I able to locate the upgrades area, but they did not have any updates for China (Taiwan, Japan, and Central Asia had Acrobat PDF files).

This book was written within the round-eye tourist and expatriate's perspective. For the squinty-eye overseas Chinese, those able to blend-in and reading and speaking Mandarin, Taiwanese, or Cantonese, I'd like to see your coverage broadened to include dirt-cheap accommodations and native business interests, especially in the Pudong SEZ and other high-tech areas similar to the Zhongguancun SEZ in Beijing. Or at least include a detailed list of resources, websites, or tourist guides written in Chinese.

Having just finished six months studying in Shangai, I think I'm in a good position to review this book. The sections on local food, excursions and the like are interesting and accurate - I have tried and tested Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing - but other areas like nightlife and the like are out of date (already!). For this sorts of things its best to check out ... which is the local expat magazine. There you can find better listings of restaurants, clubs, bars and the like. The best thing would be to contact a local once you get there.

Seldom have I given a guide five stars, but this guide is brilliant. Without a doubt this is the definitive travel guide for Shanghai today. Lonely Planet and Bradley Mayhew did it right. The maps: excellent. Internet addresses and web sites listed, YES. Great introduction, check. The history and general information are very good. Even the box vignettes are filled with wonderful superfluous information (IE. Cheap thrills, great Jewish families, etc.). His entertainment section is one of the best I have seen. And, the accommodations, restaurants and 'what to see' are reliable, up to date and discriminating. 'Lonely Planet: Shanghai' is done right.

This also would be a great guide for long term business persons, foreign students and expats living in Shanghai. Mayhew's has unearthed information that would take you a massive amount of time and energy to retrieve on your own. His list of clubs, organizations and charities are great. .

For those who will be in Shanghai more than a few days, his section 'Excursions' takes you outside of Shanghai and these areas are well worth the effort to see. He is a co-writer for 'Lonely Planet China' (see my review) and, even though some of the information is found there too, it is only cursory compared to this guide.

Bottom line: Shanghai is a marvel, a modern urban Lazarus. A study of a city's resurrection. Never has any city come back so new, so fast. There is not a better guide out today to introduce you to this resurgence than Bradley Mayhew's, Lonely Planet Shanghai. Highly recommended

This book has a fantastic beginning! For me, there is nothing than a good novel from the American south, and this book starts out just that way! The characters are astounding! Juliet has it all! The things that drive us and the characters in the book to her and the same things that drive us away. What a powerful start! About midway, the book takes a turn towards a mundane murder mystery. As a police mystery, the book was not nearly as interesting as it was as a Southern novel. The ending was even weaker. I enjoyed it, but wished that Bradley had continued his write to his strengths to the end.

Normally, I am not really a fan of mysteries. I am however, a New Orleanean who loves to read books pertaining to the area and in that regard, this is one of the best I have ever come across. The story itself is more than decent, but the rich descriptions of the city are what more than held me captive. You want to feel sorry for the main character, Sonny due to his undying love for a crazed woman who keeps breaking his heart over and over again, but mid-way through the novel you want to scream at him "WAKE UP!!!" This is book I would highly recommend to other readers.

i read this one because i haven't been down south in three years and lately i've been reading southern books, just out of sentimentality....this story is ruthless. it's a bout a man's obsession with a woman who has him pegged; he knows she is bad for him, but he loves her anyway. every man has had at least one woman in his life who was that way( and probably yearns for another ) sonny is one of those artists who probably knows he bad, but he does it because he doesn't know how to do any thing else...he makes for an interesting psychological profile.

but the book is all about juliet....

man, this woman is the epitome of the psychowoman from hell...the things she says and does freaked me out totally...if the story was just about the realtionship between sonny and juliet, i would have given it five stars...but mr bradley, had to do a james m. cain, and give us a crime story... i wasn't that impressed...

still the book was cool, just to " see " new orleans again...sometimes, i do miss it......

It would have been simple for the author to take the easy, obvious route here, telling a straight-ahead story about a washed-up football coach on his last legs who wins the big game at the end and everything ends happily ever after. Instead, he turned it into a funny, insightful tale that works on so many levels and rings totally true. It is NOT a football book! It's a story with fascinating characters (go deeper than what might appear to be stereotypes at first read) and so much local color it almost reads like a movie script. I've enjoyed Bradley's work in Esquire and SI and I'm glad I found this book.

Truly the Old Man is one of the great fictional sports figures. We see a guy clinging to his image with all fingernails. What other film shows a man delighted to get cancer for it will force his enemies to retreat? I'd place the Old Man up there with Elmer Gantry and Andy Griffith in A Face In the Crowd as great Southern figures. The book never backs off and pays off royally.

The BEST find in recent years. I found this book at a discount store which sold over-runs. The title caught my interest, and the dust jacket synopsis sold me. I covered the 336 pages in only 2 days.

John Ed Bradley has done a fantastic job of bringing very complex and interesting characters to life. His writing is so fresh and visual. Mr. Bradley's style is very unique and wonderful to read.

This is a "must read" for any football fan. But it's more than a football story. Actually, very little occurs on the field. John Ed provides a very human look into a man who is larger than life and seems willed to self-destruction. It is an excellent character study with elements of drama and comedy which manages to hold your attention and fascination.

The Southern tones and dialogue add a rich texture to Coach's story. It is very a bittersweet story that you will not forget for some time.

This book has been very helpful in explaining the basics of Exchange server. However, there have been multiple questions that have gone unanswered by this book. If it's intention is to be a complete reference for Exchange, it needs much more detail regarding newsgroups, forms, and client software. I would also like to have seen more detailed instructions on HOW to accomplish something with Exchange. There is a lot of text stating "with Exchange server 5.5, you can do this . . . " fill in the blank, but then there are no follow-up instructions on HOW to accomplish that task. Overall, it is a good beginner's guide, but not very helpful for real-world Exchange administrators who need to use Exchange server to its fullest capacity.

This book is big and it talks about a lot of issues but doesn't get into much detail. Perhaps it was not intended to. It sure gives a good general picture for the beginner, but I would have liked to see more on the Internet features like POP3. In coclusion, it's a good "overall" book on Exchange, but my advice is to supplement it with some smaller specialized books like MS Exchange Server Internet Mail Connector by Spyros Sakellariadis

Using Microsoft Exchange Server

The best book for : trekers, climbers and travellers.Im red this book before my first trip to Gharwal Himalaya, Gangotri region.If you budget will be 5$ dollars per day or 30$ this bok is for you. You can find here all the best interesting pleaces for sightseeing, trekking - the beautiful region in north of India.All essential information about trip,hotel, acomodation you can get in Lonely Planet, so you have to bay this excelent book and now you will make planing your trip with yours the best friends - the autors Lonely Planet Indian Himalaya.

i would have to agree with the negative reviews i've seen, and also the majority of travelers i have met in china. we all carry around the lp "bible", but also agree that it is one of the worst publications they have. it seems as you travel along that maybe lonely planet has not visited china or the places it talks about in a while. unfortunately it is one of the only publications of its type and it does contain a minimum of information that one may find useful at times. most of the informatino is outdated, even though i'm using the 2003 edition. Not to mention that they add the poorly written humor instead of a little more chinese script, which let me tell you goes a long way in a country where once you're out of the main cities, very few people speak english, and when they do it is not the best. some more useful word and phrases would be great, instead of how to say "eel fried with spinach and mushrooms". just the words for muchrooms, noodles, and rice would be nice, instead of forcing you to buy the mandarin phrase book, just to get the basics. another complaint i would have is in the compactnes. i realize this is a large country, but i feel like a lot of the space dedicated to useless information and adveritisments that you can't ever remove (for more lp bibles...) could be put to some much better use. All in all i have to say that while containing some very useful information, you're much better off photocopying the important pages and leaving the book at home.

My friend and I have been in China two times: each for 3 weeks. LP was one of the guidebooks we used throughout. The first trip was to the South (up to Lijiang in Yunan) and the second was to the west (up to Turpan). Both trips planted in us rewarding experiences and beautiful memories. We wanted to go to Tibet, but we had no enough time (by bus, it already would have taken 3 days to Lhasa from Qinghai).

While reading some of the reviews on this page, IMHO, I think that if you'd like to learn more about history of China or language, you should buy history books or some sort. LP mainly serves as a "survival" guide. If you ever are in China, you will know how much "survival" means to you.

About inaccuacies in this book, you should keep in mind that China is still a changing country. Everthing was so unpredictable. But that's actually one of the things that makes China so fascinating to travel in. Nevertheless, I found that the info was as much accurate as it could be. For example, in Beijing, you can follow the direction in the book to get the cheapest money exchange rate (a laundry shop in an alley was actually there!).

If you're planning to spend time in China on your own, I highly recommend this book. You also need one or two good phrase books, if you don't know about Chinese. If you are also interested in historical part of China, also bring with you a good history book. But I doubt it, for the following reasons: 1) the experiences, sceneries, people, etc. will make you forget about history, and 2) they are all to heavy to carry. Imagine you are loading your backpack on your back walking and looking for a place to sleep, or on a bus with a map in one hand. I wouldn't carry a lot of books.

I have found so many intersting people travelling in deep China, most of them from European countries. They all carry this Bible with them.

If you're traveling in places like China, I advise you have a special home-made wallet that sits between the innest shirt and your skin, or inside the underwear. You should keep all your important documents and money in this wallet.

I first travelled to China in 1998 and brought with me the then current edition of the Lonely Planet. My review of it is here somewhere. Despite being on a guided and highly structured tour, I found the guide absolutely indespensible and I used it constantly before and during my trip.

China has changed so much in just two years. The change is even more evident in the major touristy type cities such as Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. Fortunately, as China changes so does the Lonely Planet guide. And fortunately, the guide is just as good as ever.

I enjoyed the LP China book for two reasons. First off, the background information is so awesome for preperation for a trip to China. China is a great trip, but at times it is not an easy trip. However, the guide does a good job of letting you know ahead of time what wonders, amazments, and frustrations may lie ahead.

Once in China the book is awesome on where to go, the background and history of where you are, and how to get there. The maps and train times are oh so important.

China is a great and challenging trip. To do it right you need to be ready for it before and while there. Simply put, the LP book is the best way to get ready for a big trip to China.

This book never left my side during two trips to China. This book is worth every penny it costs.

Bradley is as talented as his biggest promoters suggest. His talent is totally non-apparent in this book. He has gotten away with some 'fantasy' in prior books, so he just takes that and whimsy to the unforgivable extreme here. If you hate Wal-Mart, you can say how and why in a much more efficient and effective way than this disappointing farce. Bradley should have had more pride than to let this one loose.

This is a great book by a fantastic author. Bradley creates such beautiful stories, with wonderful characters. I would highly recommend his novels to any friend!

After reading Smoke, I found myself trying to get a copy of everything else he has written. I enjoyed the laid back style and the optimistic if not naive outlook of the main characters. It is great to have a read that does not require one to explore all the ironies and look for the demons and angels in all of us. This was a tremendously funny and heartwarmingly real look at how people wish they could be , when at their best or at their worst.

...Primarily, the Map is wrong. Azad Kashmir is such a beautiful part of Pakistan, and they cokmpletely miss it. They go on to show that Entire Kashmir is a part of india.
The book is also missing insiders scoop. Perhaps just using this book aas a reference, and Using other guide would be better. The authors also give a fake image of Pakistans politics, and its intolerance, as a matter of fact its very tolerant...As long as you aren't calling for trouble, you're all right!

The book is written very well. Gives all the information a traveller could possibly use. The only thing wrong with is the map of Pakistan and Kashmir. Kashmir is shown to be a part of India which is totally wrong. One part of Kashmir - Azad Kashmir is independant whereas the other half is occupied by India. The map of Kashmir should be corrected to earn the fifth star.

Without bringing my political affiliations and leanings into this review (...), I can safely vouch for this travel guide to Pakistan. Informative, thorough, honest and highly enjoyable, Lonely Planet has come through again! I utilized their travel books throughout my recent trip to India and Pakistan and was never led wrong (infact they have saved my behind a few times, especially in Pak), but overall enhanced my experience as they encouraged me to try new and different things while there and also gave me some pointers on how to interact with the locals. One negative point to mention: Lonely Planet Pakistan doesn't stress and/or inform about the heckling, whistling, and unwanted male attention foreign girls (even those who are of Indian origin) have to suffer through, enough.

The negative comments re the first edition are justified, but for this much better second edition clearly a lot of work has gone into improving the Yunnan section (the bit I can comment on).

A couple of the reviews below complain that the coverage of South-West China was just lifted from Lonely Planet's China guide and this is really misleading. To prove a point, the following destinations are covered only in the SW China book and are not covered at all in the China guide:

YUNNAN - grottoes of Shibaoshan, stone city of Baoshan, Weixi county, Tiger Leaping Gorge trek map, Birang Gorge, Dondrupling monastery, Cizhong Catholic Church, the Nujiang Valley, Menglian, Chengjiang, Jiangchuan, architecture of Jianshui, Gejiu, terraces of Yuanyuang, Luxi Caves
SICHUAN - dinosaurs of Zigong, Yibin, Bamboo Sea, Bo Hanging Coffins, Yi people of Xichang and the Cool Mountains, Tibetan area of Muli, Tibetan monasteries around Tagong and Ganzi, Dzogchen Monastery, Pelpung, Dzongsar and Kathok monasteries around Derge, trekking around Derge, Daocheng and Yading Nature Reserve, Woolong Nature Reserve, Barkham, Wenchuan, Langmusi, Aba
GUIZHOU - Xingren, Miao towns of Leishan, Taijiang, Fanpai, Shidong, Huangping, Shibing, Zhenyuan, Tongren, Fanjing Mt nature Reserve, the Dong settlements of Ronjiang, Congjiang and Zhaoxing, waterfalls and caves of Chishui,
Guangxi - Nanning, Beihai, Chongzuo, Detian Waterfall on the Vietnam border, Jingxi, Baise, Guiping

The bottom line is that if you are planning a trip around China and/or only have a week or two in SW China, then take LP's China. But if you want to get off the beaten track, have more time to explore SW China and/or have an interest in Tibetan monasteries, hilltribe villages and minority nationalities in general, then SW China is DEFINITELY the guide to take.

This edition will take the traveler beyond the main sites detailed in the China 2000 Lonely Planet. Ignore the other two reviews as they criticize the earlier edition for being out of date. This edition will be very helpful for those exploring the diverse regions of Yunnan and beyond in the Southwest of China.