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17th out of 156 books
—
108 voters
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China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
by
Rob Gifford
Route 312 is the Chinese Route 66. It flows three thousand miles from east to west, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the Old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down.
In this utterly surprising...more
In this utterly surprising...more
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published
May 29th 2007
by Random House
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Several years ago, I listened to Rob Gifford’s series "On the Road in China" on NPR. Three of my siblings (or siblings-in-law) have lived in Asia, and though I’ve never traveled in the area, I was fascinated by his series.
With this in mind, I intended to read Gifford’s China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power when it first came out last year. However, my local library did not immediately add it to its collection, so I forgot about the book.
Until I...more
With this in mind, I intended to read Gifford’s China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power when it first came out last year. However, my local library did not immediately add it to its collection, so I forgot about the book.
Until I...more
I found this book to be fascinating. Knowing relatively little about China, this was a very eye-opening book.
The premise is that Gifford, a journalist with many years spent in China, travels Route 312 from the coast of China all the way the Kazakhstan border. The journey is filled with conversations with the Chinese people he meets. Along the way, he educates the reader in Chinese history. Much more emotionally charged than I was expecting, but it is also very funny and entertaining.
The premise is that Gifford, a journalist with many years spent in China, travels Route 312 from the coast of China all the way the Kazakhstan border. The journey is filled with conversations with the Chinese people he meets. Along the way, he educates the reader in Chinese history. Much more emotionally charged than I was expecting, but it is also very funny and entertaining.
I know next to nothing about China, and Gifford's book is a nice way to sort of skim through the impossibly broad array of cultural and socio/political issues and shifts which make it up. Unlike most people who write about China, he's actually more interested in the Chinese people he meets than in the Chinese economy, which no one actually knows what to make of (including most Chinese). He also does a lot to illuminate the historical tensions between Chinese peasants and the centralized ruling p...more
Julie
rated it
Recommends it for:
Any traveller; anyone interested in East Asia
Recommended to Julie by:
NPR
For a reader such as I, who knows so little about China, this was an excellent and accessible overview. As he experiences the tidal wave of hyper-modernity that begins in the eastern cities and rushes into the remote western deserts and mountains, Gifford offers neat bytes of China's immense history. The bibliography is a trove to mine. Upon finishing the book I had a solid grasp of China's possibilities of growth and tumult respective of its past cultural and political development. ANd I yearn ...more
Rob Gifford convinced me that China an enigma to much of the world for good reason, not just because of our ignorance. Points that stuck with me:
First, China is a collection of ethnic minorities, some of whom have almost nothing to do with the rest of China except by political fiat. Head west in China, as Rob Gifford did, and you find yourself with people who are being swamped by the Han Chinese, the 92% ethnic majority. We have nothing quite like that in the US.
Second...more
First, China is a collection of ethnic minorities, some of whom have almost nothing to do with the rest of China except by political fiat. Head west in China, as Rob Gifford did, and you find yourself with people who are being swamped by the Han Chinese, the 92% ethnic majority. We have nothing quite like that in the US.
Second...more
Rather than trying to capture all of China, Gifford takes us along on a guided road-trip; a backpack-toting, hostel-sleeping, diesel-driving, 3000 mile journey through modern China. It is, by his account, a nation divided: obsessed with a future improbable enough to be terrifying, and bound by a past whose release could be fatal.
This is not a scholarly work (though there are some elements of that), but a personal account of the lives of real people: a roomful of villagers infected wi...more
This is not a scholarly work (though there are some elements of that), but a personal account of the lives of real people: a roomful of villagers infected wi...more
British author Rob Gifford, fluent in Mandarin, with 20 years experience in China as a student and journalist, decides to travel Route 312 from Shanghai to Korgaz (China's border with Kazakhstan). Devoting a summer to this 3000-mile trip via buses and taxis, he brings his career experience to ponder the questions of China's future. [return][return]Talking with ordinary people of many ethnic, economic and social identities, and putting today's China into historical context, the result is informat...more
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Just before packing up and leaving China for good, NPR foreign correspondent Rob Gifford bused and hitchhiked his way along China's 5000 kilometer Route 312. Route 312 spans the country from east to west, from the modern city of Shanghai, through the industrial areas along the coast, alongside the poor rural farmers in China's central region, and right through the Gobi Desert. Along the way, Gifford (who is fluent in Mandarin) talked to the local people and made his own observations about Chin...more
Author: Rob Gifford
Title: China road
Time: 2005
Destination: China (Route 312)
Length: 2 months
Type: overland
Rating: 7/10
Connaisseur of (modern) China
[Please note: I have been reading a German translation of this work.]
The story: RG is a journalist with some 20 years of experience in China who decides to travel along the 312国道 (National Road 312) from 上海 (Shanghai) all the way to 霍尔果斯 (Korgos) on the border to Kazakhstan. This ...more
A perfect book for the China generalist. Entertaining, enlightening, wide-ranging, smoothly presented. Just the right helpings of culture, politics, history, quirk, engaging anecdotes, moving stories, enlightening revelations, social commentary, etc. If you want to know a whole lot more about all the facets of modern China -- rather than just focusing on the politics as I often do -- this book is a great way to start. Yes, it will tell you a lot about the political situation, but it will also se...more
I'm an ABC (American-born Chinese) who has spent all my life shuttling back and forth from China and the US. China and I have a very complex relationship, as in I want it to succeed and there are definitely some positive things about China....but at the same time, I enjoy my rights and I can see the good and bad of China. I feel a definite need to protect China sometimes because it is often painted in an unflattering light. Sometimes the media is right and sometimes the media is wrong.
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I really, really enjoyed this book. For all of the purists out there, I did listen to it as an audio book on a road trip with my family -- but to me, listening is the same as reading.
I enjoyed this book on several levels, the first being that it was a really informative book about the state of affairs in China today. China has seen a lot of changes in the last decade, and those changes play out in the lives of its people. The premise of the book was that Gifford would travel down ...more
I enjoyed this book on several levels, the first being that it was a really informative book about the state of affairs in China today. China has seen a lot of changes in the last decade, and those changes play out in the lives of its people. The premise of the book was that Gifford would travel down ...more
On occasion I pick a book up that while it doesn't grab me, it absolutely holds my interest and makes me so glad to have taken the time to read it. This is such a book. I am a huge NPR fan and Rob Gifford is one of its correspondents. He lived in and reported from China for years but prior to reassignment, he traveled the "China Road" from Singapore to the opposite border. As he travels he interviews those with whom he travels and meets. I feel so much better educated about China as a ...more
In this book NPR correspondent Rob Gifford offers a fascinating view of China’s past, present, and potential future. A twenty-year resident of the country, Gifford weaves together an enjoyably readable book that is equal parts travel journal, (the narrative thrust of the book recounts his two-month journey of Highway 312, China’s three-thousand mile equivalent to America’s Route 66) and political, economic, and spiritual history book.
Along the road, Gifford meets all kinds of intere...more
Along the road, Gifford meets all kinds of intere...more
Last year I traveled the Silk Road, the ancient road that cuts through China. This year, it’s my opportunity to travel down China Road, Route 312, a new superhighway through modern China. Modern China, I have found, is a mass of dangerous contradictions. For one, China is an economic superpower that continues to be ruled by a despotism that severely limits individual freedom but turns a blind eye to industrial pollution and the basic human rights of workers. The Chinese people are unhappy with t...more
Rob Gifford is a National Public Radio correspondent who decided to take a trip across China on Route 312 before leaving his post in Beijing to return to his home in London. Route 312 runs across China from Shanghai in the southeast to Kazakhstan in the northwest, through the Gobi desert, through the Great Wall, and along part of the famous old Silk Road. The reporter hitchhiked and rode taxis and buses for almost 3,000 miles across this huge and quickly changing country.
Gifford sp...more
Gifford sp...more
I wish I could give this book 3.5 stars. Sometimes I want to give it four stars.
This book is Rob Gifford's journey through China. On the road he talks to the local people, the wealthy and the poor, the businessmen and the farmers, about what they feel about China. He gives the reader a glimpse of the perspectives of the different people in China. What he covers is just a fraction of this continent but his glimpse is quite intriguing.
Four stars for his sense of humor, br...more
This book is Rob Gifford's journey through China. On the road he talks to the local people, the wealthy and the poor, the businessmen and the farmers, about what they feel about China. He gives the reader a glimpse of the perspectives of the different people in China. What he covers is just a fraction of this continent but his glimpse is quite intriguing.
Four stars for his sense of humor, br...more
Great Book! I would highly recommend to anyone interested in learning more about the history, present and possible future of China and how this could affect us in the US. The author, an NPR correspondent in China for six years, took a road trip along the equivalent of US's Route 66 from Shanghai to the border of Kazakhstan, traveling by taxi, bus and hitchhiking. I found the stories of the people he met and his insight on China's history fascinating.
Jonna
added it
This is very straightforward and easily readable (though the writing/storytelling is not as intricate, detailed, and vivid as Peter Hessler's). A friend pointed out to me five or six years ago how hugely influential India and China will be/are in the world, and ever since I've tried to learn more. I'm fascinated by China. Gifford's own complex feelings of loving the energy and optimism of China and the number of people who have gotten out of poverty there in recent years, while hating the rep...more
If you listen to NPR at all, you have probably heard the distinctive voice of Rob Gifford. He is now the London bureau chief, but for many years he was the Beijing correspondent. Before he left he wrote China Road, a travelogue and study of China based on a trip along China's Route 312. This road, which Gifford calls China's Route 66 begins in Shanghai, moves into the central farm country, to the historic city of Xi'an, and then through the desert to Central Asia.
There are many books...more
There are many books...more
I was unsure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It's an excellent read. Upon coming to the end of his time as a correspondent in China, Gifford decides to ride the length of what could be called China's Highway 10 - it goes all the way from Shanghai to China's border with Kazakhstan. As he rides on buses and with truckers, he encounters dozens of different people and asks them what they think of China - its past, present and future. On one hand, I liked reading a book on contemporary China t...more
This book is a good intro to modern China - Gifford spent several years in China as an NPR correspondent before embarking on his journey along Route 312, referred to as the "Chinese Route 66" for the way that it spans across the whole country, giving travelers a chance to experience everything that China has to offer.
From ultra-modern Shanghai, across farmlands and deserts and all the way to Kazakhstan, Gifford hitchhikes and takes taxis, describing the people he meets alo...more
From ultra-modern Shanghai, across farmlands and deserts and all the way to Kazakhstan, Gifford hitchhikes and takes taxis, describing the people he meets alo...more
Rob Gifford, a former China correspondent for NPR, tells the story of his road trip on China's equivalent of our Route 66, designated Route 312, at the end of his 6 year stay in the country. On this 3000 mile journey from Shanghai to the Kazakhstan border, Gifford meets people of various backgrounds, experiences, and surprisingly, different ethnicities by hitchhiking, bus riding, and essentially anything else you can do to complete a 3000 mile trek. My eyes were opened to just how little I knew ...more
After living in China for a while, I've come to dislike almost all western reporting on China. While it's rarely factually wrong, it generally misses the point. I'm looking at you, CNN.
This book is one of the handful of exceptions. Rob Gifford is well respected here as a true China expert, and his book gives a true and vivid picture of modern China, with all its contradictions.
He uses the device of traveling along Route 312, a 3000 mile road that connects Shanghai with...more
This book is one of the handful of exceptions. Rob Gifford is well respected here as a true China expert, and his book gives a true and vivid picture of modern China, with all its contradictions.
He uses the device of traveling along Route 312, a 3000 mile road that connects Shanghai with...more
Subtitled "A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power". Gifford was the NPR correspondent assigned to China. This book documents a 6-week backpacking journey along a road called "Route 312" - a primary economic artery in China, which runs for 3,000 miles across the length of China from Shanghai, through the Gobi Desert, through central Asia and on to Europe. He traveled on bus, hitchhiking, trains, taxis - whatever he finds. His ability to converse in Mandarin allows him to ...more
Rob Gifford, a longtime journalist in Bejing, follows Rte 312 the 3000 mile long Old Silk Road from Shanghai to Kazihstan. His knowledge of Mandarin facilitates conversations that are at time poingnant, humorous and
educational.
educational.
Brandy
added it
This was an incredible book and one I'm sure I will reread. It has definitely evoked an interest in me that I didn't have before starting the book! Rob Gifford is the perfect companion for this road trip; I love that he spends so much time with diverse Chinese "One Hundred Names." He is also AMAZING at navigating Chinese history, politics, cultural and ethnic tensions, geography, etc. in such a way that I, who knew none of this, was not overwhelmed, yet it's a complex portrayal. Plus h...more
It's unlikely that I'll ever travel China's route 312 so this seems about as close as I'll get. Because China is so enormous geographically and demographically, I find accounts of contemporary China fascinating. The concept for this book is such a good idea, beginning in Shanghai and traveling the length of Route 312 to its end at the border with Kazakhstan. Along the way the author, of course, has numerous encounters with ordinary Chinese as he tells the story of China circa 2007 including i...more
A great book! I recommend it for anyone who wants to know more about China, especially contemporary China. I liked Rob Gifford when he was the NPR correspondent over there. This book is about a trip he took on Route 312 from Shanghai to the western border of China, meeting and talking to ordinary people along the way. He throws in a little history and his thoughts about the political situation there, actually more than his thoughts, because he did research for the book and there is a good bib...more
This book chronicle's Gifford's road trip from Shanghai to the Khazakhstan border along China Route #312 (Equivalent to U.S. Route 66). Along the way, he meets and talks to many locals to better understand their everyday life as well as their sentiments about China's progress. I never realized how much corruption there is at the local government level, and how individual rights are violated on an individual basis... In addition, I was suprised to hear that many of Gifford's "encountees"...more
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