Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory

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Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory

4.15 of 5 stars 4.15 · rating details · 2,336 ratings · 367 reviews

From the bestselling author of Oracle Bones and River Town comes the final book in his award-winning trilogy, on the human side of the economic revolution in China. In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver's license. For the next seven years, he traveled the country, tracking how the automobile...more

Hardcover, 448 pages

Published February 9th 2010 by Harper (first published January 1st 2009)

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Feb 17, 2013 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, china, travel

The author, a journalist and old China hand, describes life on the road in a rural China that is rapidly developing, with new roads and factories being built every year. At 420 pages, the book’s scope is much wider than the simple comedy of renting a car in a heavily bureaucratic society that nevertheless has a vibrant under-the-table economy, or the perils of driving in a country where most people behind the wheel have had very little training and eschew wipers and lights. Hessler rents a house...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: shanghaimamas-book-club

We read this for the August Book club - but we didn't get a chance to discuss it because of schedule conflicts. I liked the book overall. It had a bit more detail than the ususual expat book because it was outside of Shanghai and Beijing. The one thing I kept thinking of while I was reading it was whether it was already all out dated. The book was published in 2010, but much of it was based on his research and trips from the early 2000's. So much changes so fast in China - everything is another...more We read this for the August Book club - but we didn't get a chance to discuss it because of schedule conflicts. I liked the book overall. It had a bit more detail than the ususual expat book because it was outside of Shanghai and Beijing. The one thing I kept thinking of while I was reading it was whether it was already all out dated. The book was published in 2010, but much of it was based on his research and trips from the early 2000's. So much changes so fast in China - everything is another whole generation past what he experienced. Here are some of the items I found most interesting or thought provoking, or were new insights considering I've already read about 5 expat memoirs/thinly veiled novels.

1. I never knew the use of headlights was banned in Beijing until the 1970s. That explains alot to me.
2. The old man who asked him if he was Chinese - "I thought you weren't Chinese!" That made me laugh.
3. I really wish some of the sections on the great wall had pictures. He is fine at describing things, but it is hard for me to really imagine things from his descriptons.
4. In the part where he talked about the differences between the three country brothers and the Beijing kids - he said, "I never saw kids like this in Beijing --in the capital, nearly everybody is an only child, coddled and spoiled from birth" It really evoked the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins for me - and it really is like that in China, how much the people in the cities have, vs. the subsistence life styles in the country.
5. I didn't know the bus drivers were paid on a percentage of ticket sales, that explains why the bus was so overstuffed in a long haul bus accident I heard about a few months ago.
6. Unbelievably -- it is the second time I have heard a story of the office paper from the US/UK sent to China for recycling - it was also in a book about Chinese quality.
7. I really liked the stories in the Village where he slowly befriended the towns people, I think that was the most engaging section of the book. It was interesting to see the families changing with the influx of money and the opportunities.
8. Also to see how they tried to navigate the politics - shows me why I am so bad at it here.
9. I think the stories of the people who work in the pleather factories are tragic.

Overall I really liked the book.
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Feb 18, 2011 AC rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audible, china

I haven't finished (listening), but I *can* write a comment now. This is a wonderful book. Hessler is a wonderful and brilliant writer. He has a deep and serious understanding of culture (as such), as well as of Chinese culture in particular; he is intelligent, observant, has emotional range, a sense of humor -- and, most importantly, he is writing about something important. The emergence of China is a world-historical event, and this book -- much of which takes place in rural China in 2002-2006...more

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Sep 27, 2010 Katherine rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was my top read of the summer. I found myself laughing outloud, and searching for opportunties to read tid-bits to whoever was around to listen. Hessler has an engaging writing style, and an ability to effortlessly jump from an emotional, moving description that almost brings you to tears to a hilarious depiction so absurd you can't imagine it to be true. When he said he got on the new highway in China and couldn't get off for two hours because the on and off ramps hadn't been built, I...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Greg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great book with keen insights into life in China. Two main parts - first part is about living out in the country, and how that's changing. Second part is about industry, namely starting your own business.

Story starts out in Beijing, where the author decides to rent a car to go out into the countryside, initially to learn more about the Great Wall. Great Wall is actually more of a Western concept, and the Chinese have adopted those myths seemingly because they're good marketing. There is no sing...more Great book with keen insights into life in China. Two main parts - first part is about living out in the country, and how that's changing. Second part is about industry, namely starting your own business.

Story starts out in Beijing, where the author decides to rent a car to go out into the countryside, initially to learn more about the Great Wall. Great Wall is actually more of a Western concept, and the Chinese have adopted those myths seemingly because they're good marketing. There is no single wall, rather a bunch of walls built by different dynasties. Some are nothing more than raised mounds; the iconic walls were built by (I think) the Ming (or was it Tang?). He doesn't mention that the tourist parts are actually recently rebuilt. Even though the author is not supposed to go outside city limits, he does so anyway, venturing further and further. One thing that was striking was how many people are willing to hitchhike, even pretty young girls. Most are traveling between villages, or back home to visit family. Almost all are surprised to hear the author is just sight-seeing. Most have never seen a foreigner either, and cannot figure out the author (he must speak very good Chinese). Eventually the story settles in a small village in the farming outskirts of Beijing, probably an hour or so outside the city. Originally the author rents a place there with a friend just to have a retreat, but spends more and more time there. The conditions are very primitive, with daily life in the winter revolving around the Kang (heated bed), and presumably with summers spent farming, or trying to bust out a living some other way. However, as more of the Chinese middle-class buys cars, more and more city folk are discovering the "countryside", and a tourism industry builds, even in the village. The author befriends his landlord (or his landlords uncle) and details his attempts to start a business, raise his kid in a changing China, get into politics, etc. There are lots of little insights, especially into the political system. The local government, as well as a regional government, are essentially old boys clubs, and there is no oversight to prevent corruption. The local party secretary (a woman, which is extremely rare) is suspected of profiteering off of the recent construction booms in the area. It is also more or less impossible to get rid of her, as too few are willing to challenge her. There were also some tidbits about the land-lease system (farmers cannot own land, and can be booted at any time) that parallel to Prisoner of the State, as well as state-run and formerly state-run businesses (workers have no incentive to as better or worse job, and thus put in the absolute minimum). The stories about the car-rental business were hilarious though, and the manager is a riot ("You went all the way to inner Mongolia? Hey everyone, guess how far Ho Wei went?!", "You let someone borrow the car and he wrecked the front? No problem! Just fill out this international commerce insurance claim form.").

The second half of the story takes place (I believe) in ZheJiang, following entrepreneurs starting a business. The author first explores the area and how it is changing. Each town in the area seems to have a specialty product (or low-level input). Business between towns is iffy, because the roads are unreliable and inhibit travel. The government is actively constructing new roads, and no one really questions/cares when the author starts hanging around construction zones. In fact, a lot of the guys seem to enjoy the company, and shenanigans follow. The construction workers get a kick out of watching him try and handle a jackhammer. Another boss let him watch as they blew up a mountainside to try and level the mountains and valleys ("What are you doing behind the tractor? You won't be able to see the whole explosion!"). The author finally settles on one particular business, making bra rings. It seems businesses in China are still limited to making basic parts en mass - even the bra ring setup is considered "advanced" because it has an expensive bra ring machine as a barrier to entry. The factory manages to get off the ground, but then there are no customers, and workers are pushed away, or kept offline. As business picks up, they finally start making money, and the workers are invited back. The organizational structure of the factory is a bit interesting, especially as it is mostly unskilled labor. At the top are the bosses of course. Next is the "master", the only one who knows how to build and fix the machine. There is also a chemist, who wants to become a master. The title master is probably shifu, which is informally given. At least, there is no clear criteria for deciding who is a master and who isn't. Of the workers, the father of one of the families has become the defacto labor negotiator, thanks to his ability to carve out a deal. There is a foreman, but he seems to have power in title only. The stories of how the workers came to be, and how workers are chosen is different than how we think of things here. Young, unattractive females are preferred, since they don't cause trouble, controversy, and you can pay them less. In fact, there are so many people coming from farms trying to get jobs that they often lie about their age, and commit other deceptions to try and get work. One family is detailed in particular, where the youngest daughter uses her older sister's identity to get a job, then uses her lie to get her sister in, and then eventually her whole family. The "Master" came by way of stealthily leaving his last company. Apparently many workers in China have a very Machiavellian way of thinking, due mainly to some book that teaches such thinking (get ahead at any costs / keep bridges if they will benefit you, otherwise burn them / it's okay to lie to your benefit if no one gets hurt or knows any better / etc). The Master makes up some story about having to go back to his family every time he gets a better offer, and never comes back. Or, if the new gig doesn't pan out, he'll make up another story about having to stay longer than expected. The author moves back to the states at about the time when the bosses are trying to move the factory to a better location. When he comes back, the old factory location is abandoned, the master has moved on and started his own recycling business (and is making lots of money), and .. don't remember what happened to the bra wire factory. That's kind of where the story left off; it had to happen at some point.(less)

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Apr 26, 2013 M M rated it 5 of 5 stars

In 2001, Peter Hessler obtained his Chinese driving licence and began to drive around that great country. An American, he was already a skilled driver, and so he is shaken and shocked and stirred by the terrible abilities of China's drivers. By dint of sheer physical courage and intellectual curiosity, he tames his fears of the Chinese roads, and sets out to discover his adopted country. His latest book, Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip is an account of the people he met who took him into th...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Graham Mulligan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Country Driving, A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, Peter Hessler, Harper Collins, 2010

Reviewed by Graham Mulligan

This is a book inspired by solitude and yearning. After leaving the Peace Corps (Rivertown) and moving to Beijing as a journalist (New Yorker and National Geographic) the author gets his Chinese driver’s license and starts a road-trip. The route is defined by its proximity to an icon of China, the Great Wall. Leaning heavily on Arthur Waldron’s book The Great Wall of Chin...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Joe Fraser rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and to be honest, my rating may be a bit inflated, be it that I read it not only while in Beijing but the week prior to the Great Wall (this latter fact completely by coincidence).

Anyways, for anyone interested in China for all of the obvious reasons yet doesn't know much, if anything, about it nor where to start, this book should serve as your launching point. Certainly, you will find more academic and comprehensive analysis of China's history, economics...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Omer Tariq rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the kind of book that I love reading. In a span of 6 days, I know much more about China's culture, economy and history and I totally enjoyed while reading it.

Reading this book was like reading a long but interesting blog. Peter Hessler's style is exactly like that of a blog writer. I think his experience with The New Yorker has enabled him to write in that way.

People in Pakistan say that we need someone like Chairman Mao in Pakistan. I know enough now to understand that it is flawed thi...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Author / journalist Peter Hessler is one of my Top Favorite authors: He writes very well, he notices and finds "the interesting" in just about everything (and then makes you interested in these things as well), he is clearly fascinated by China and human nature, and observes and writes about both enormously well, and, on top of it, he's just an all around decent guy with whom it's fun to spend a lot of reading time. "Country Driving" is his third book about China, written while living there, and...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Gabriel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

County Driving is really three books in one. The first, about Hessler's road trip along the Great Wall and about driving in China generally is entertaining, but ultimately the least interesting of the three. Although the episodes of his road trip are interesting, it fails to add up to anything more than shaggy-dog story.

In the second part about life in a small village outside Beijing that undergoes huge transformation in just a few years as it is discovered by road-tripping Beijingers, Hessler s...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Vinod Peris rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked up this book to prepare me for my trip to China. I was flying in to Shanghai and wanted to get a better understanding of the local culture and get some insight into what had made it so successful. Peter Hessler is a staff writer at the New Yorker and I am always happy to read a book from someone who has been a career journalist. The book does not disappoint and is extremely well written.

There are three parts to the book each of which can be read separately. For the first part, the autho...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars

To learn more about the Asia-Pacific, I loaded my tablet with a weighty number of e-books about the region. Country Driving seemed like a friendly place to start, and it was exactly that. The text is prone to tangents, but that's how the author seems to experience the world, so this was actually part of the charm. Peter Hessler provides an interesting inside view of China that is less evident from the outside looking in. A mass migration from rural to urban life as people seek new opportunities...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Christoph Rehage rated it 5 of 5 stars

Here’s another book about modern China:

Author: Peter Hessler
Title: Über Land. Begegnungen im neuen China
[Title:] [Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory]
Time: 2001-2008
Destination: China
Length: several travels over several years
Type: driving
Rating: 9/10
A connaisseur with a heart

The story: US-citizen PH works as a correspondent for The New Yorker in Beijing. He gets a driver’s license and drives a rental car along some parts of the Great Wall, he rents a house in a small vi...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Catherine Woodman added it

I really enjoyed reading this book, which is really three different essays on his travels in China. The first third of the book is about his adventures traveling by car in rural China along the Great Wall. His descriptions of the car he rents,t he people he meets and the expectations of people in rural China are hilarious and foreign and illuminating. The second third of the book is about the village he rents a house in and the people he meets there--this is more of a 'we are all the same, but i...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Brandy added it

This book was divided into three sections. The first was his road trip along the Great Wall. It was okay but compared to China Road which I had just read it wasn't great. Lacked historical and geographical contexts and there wasn't a ton of interactions with people along the way. The second part was his time spent in a rural village off of Beijing and his witnessing its development. This was my favorite section!!! He got very close with the people in the village, so there are lots of good storie...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars

Added a lot of context during and right after our 3-week visit to China. The book is in 3 parts - first he follows the great wall in multiple trips out into rural areas and then into the Ordos desert, witnessing migrants in makeup hitchhiking home, dying towns with no youth, and useless government and international development projects. Second, he recounts his years of experience with a country home outside Beijing and watching how the boom in automobiles changed a dying farming town with only 1...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Paulamoney rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have visited China twice now.... albeit 44 years apart. My visits only include the geography from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Not really a fair assessment, though I traveled by train and experienced the 3 day voyage.
I am fascinated by the place, yet, I cannot say that I LIKE the country very much. On the surface it seems that they do not respect their history, their environment nor their elders. I would need more time to make a good judgment.

I am trying to read as much as I can about China so that...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Marks54 rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a book by an American journalist who lives in China. I think he first went there as a Peace Corps teacher in the mid-1990s (see his other book, River Town). The idea of this book is to chronicle he experiences driving around the new China. The different sections cover his travels around Beijing, the new industrial areas further south, and (most interesting to me) his trip to western China shadowing the Great Wall. This is a well written and informative book of travels that is informative...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

I picked up this book because I vividly remembered the author's 2007 New Yorker article about driving in China and about the Chinese becoming a society of drivers. This contains the same material but a lot more; it's roughly divided into three sections. The first is about exploring the Great Wall by car; the second is about a village north of Beijing, Sancha, where the author has a second home; the third is about a factory outside Wenzhou that makes bra rings (you know, the little rings on the s...more

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Oct 04, 2010 Sue rated it 5 of 5 stars

Country Driving is Peter Hessler’s third book about China, and it might be the best one to convey the sense of rapid change in the country he knows so well. The book is in three parts, each covering personal experiences that Hessler had over the course of several years.

In a series of road trips following the Great Wall across northern China, he visits villages barely hanging on as their residents depart for cities. Hessler has an eye for the contradictions and ironies that abound. I love the co...more

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Aug 11, 2010 Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: china

A third book by Hessler, former peace corps volunteer/teacher in China, then a correspondent for the New Yorker. More on the changing life in the Chinese countryside. Hessler looks at three aspects of the new China - first, a trip across the north, following the Great Wall. His description of the new driver, of which there are millions, is hilarious, accurate and terrifying all at the same time. Second, several years in a small village north of beijing, watching it grow from a poor village to a...more

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Jul 30, 2010 Chandra rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the most intriguing books I've read lately, that absolutely fed my desire to know more about the mysteries of China, both past and present. Hessler documents 3 major chapters of his time spent living and working in China, in which he drives for hundreds of miles in search of the truth behind the myth of the Great Wall; lives in a small village outside of Beijing and watches the intersection of development, the entrepreneurial spirit of the countryside and local Communist politics intersec...more

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Apr 28, 2010 Brenda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Peter Hessler has been writing about China for some years now since his book River Town, chronicling his two year stint as a teacher in a town on the Yangtze, was published in 2001. Hessler remained in China as the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker and wrote another immensely readable and informative book about the way China was changing and growing, titled Oracle Bones. Now comes his third book about China and as always, I am impressed with the author. He writes about complex cultural an...more

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Mar 07, 2010 Ken Bronsil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Peter Hessler served as a Beijing-based correspondent for New Yorker magazine for most of the past decade. Early in his stay in China, he received his Chinese driving license. Then he began traveling along the new system of modern roads built by the Chinese government in anticipation of a sharp increase in the number of Chinese citizens owning automobiles. At this point the roads were there but the cars weren’t: he would sometimes drive all day without seeing another car.

His first trip took him...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Mel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: travel-writing

This is a book in three distinct parts. I found the first two parts more enjoyable than the last part, so when I finished it this morning, I wasn't feeling crazy about it. Once I thought about it, though, the parts made sense to me and I understand that they fit together to create an entire story about the development of China. I still prefer the stories in the first two parts, though.

Hessler's book is very well-written and thoroughly researched. I feel like I'm an expert on China after reading...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Stephen Joyce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: asian-books

‘Country Driving, A Chinese Road Trip’ is a travelogue by Peter Hessler, a US journalist and writer who was based in Beijing from 2000 to 2007 as a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.

The book is split into three distinct sections. ‘The Wall’ covers the author’s technically illegal 7000 mile trip from Inner Mongolia to Tibet, tracking the Great Wall (or, more accurately, Walls) of China through the less densely populated areas of the country. Hessler, fluent in Chinese, embarks upon his jou...more ‘Country Driving, A Chinese Road Trip’ is a travelogue by Peter Hessler, a US journalist and writer who was based in Beijing from 2000 to 2007 as a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.

The book is split into three distinct sections. ‘The Wall’ covers the author’s technically illegal 7000 mile trip from Inner Mongolia to Tibet, tracking the Great Wall (or, more accurately, Walls) of China through the less densely populated areas of the country. Hessler, fluent in Chinese, embarks upon his journey in a 4x4 vehicle stuffed with camping equipement, Coca Cola, Gatorade and Oreo cookies. He encounters local curiosity, official suspicion and heaps of absurdity along the way. Dotted along the side of the highways are smiling, waving traffic police – well, lifesize replicas made of fibreglass. He is stopped by real police who think he is an American spy, then wave him on his way, laughing. In the country that virtually invented cartography, its maps are largely inaccurate, while the driving technique of the average Chinese is borderline suicidal.

In part 2, ‘The Village’, Hessler rents a second house (not much more than a shack) in a small village called Sancha, two hours drive north of Beijing. There to sample rural Chinese life and concentrate on writing, he becomes closely embroiled in the increasingly complex life of a local family with whom it is impossible not to form an emotional connection. In one episode, Hessler tries to save the life of the son, Wei Jia who becomes seriously ill. He becomes more than a passive observer, actively participating in village life, playing his part in the huge changes that occur when the father, Wei Ziqi becomes a successful businessman and Communist Party cadre.

The texture of village life is documented with compassion, insight and humour. But by the time he leaves, old village life has almost dissolved. Hessler clearly has deep affection for contemporary Chinese people. He brilliantly portrays their industry, their determination, their insecurity, their mutual support networks, their direct approach to conversation, their pragmatism and their drive for self-improvement.

Most enlightening and exhausting to read is the final section, ‘The Factory’.
This may give a different dimension to your next visit to Primark or some other shop where a T-shirt costs £1.

Hessler chronicles what he saw of the fastest and greatest population shift in history - the migration of tens of millions of Chinese village dwellers to work in large towns and cities. He witnesses how whole towns become dedicated to the production of a single product. One factory manufactures an incredible one-third of all socks sold in the world. Hessler’s s factory is based in Lishui, in southern Zhejiang province, and is manned by migrant workers, who are often treated with disdain by their employers. Its only products are the tiny metal rings that are used to hold women’s bra straps together. Like many others, a company formed with no proper business plan, imported machinery past its use-by date runs this factory with workers whose only concern is money. If demand for a product drops there is no quick way to recalibrate the machinery and make something else, so production immediately slows or stops completely, leaving abandoned factories and discontented workers. Perhaps a Marxist would claim that given the economic and social conditions, China is ripe for a proletarian revolution. How ironic that this is the greatest fear of the ruling Communist Party.

Whilst not laid bare, we are given an insight into the mysterious complexities of the Guanxi system that has operated in China for a long time. This is a system of giving and receiving gifts for business related favours. In some ways it is highly functional and smoothens the path of business development. There is a series of unwritten rules (it is important no paper trail is found) around who gets what and when. Even cigarettes have a hierarchy depending on social/business class. To the Western eye, guanxi appears to be the systemisation of bribery and corruption.

The central government seems unconcerned about corrupt practices and is, in fact, usually ignored in factory towns, unless its lackeys need backhanders to facilitate some business project. Instead, vast swathes of government money are spent on infrastructure projects: roads, railways and airports, while capitalists (often relations and friends of top Communist Party bosses) are given licence to let loose on the population. It should be said of course that the population are willing and able participants. Through the process of industrialisation hundreds of millions have been taken out of rural poverty in the last decade or more.

Newspapers and literary magazines all over the world have raved about this book. It was longlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize (2010). The cover quotes focus on Hessler’s wry humour and the hilarity of some of the scrapes into which he gets himself. Perhaps understandably, not one mentions that some parts are profoundly sad and depressing, in particular the treatment of workers (the literal meaning of human resources is all too evident) and the confusion and unhappiness caused by rapid change. Change continues to happen so fast that a sense of collective dislocation and anxiety are prevalent. There has been little time for China to gain a new soul.

Country Driving is not a book about the relatively rich, cosmopolitan China of Shangahi and Beijing. It is about the heartland of a country that is going through a rapid industrial revolution with seemingly little idea of where it will end up.

The human cost of communism in China has been reasonably well documented, despite all attempts to suppress the truth. What will History have to say about China’s dramatic shift to a mixture of kleptocratic, state and cowboy capitalism?
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Apr 26, 2013 Ralph Britton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Peter Hessler got his Chinese licence after years in Beijing as a journalist and used it to travel widely across China, relying not on permission (which would not have been given) but on the the fact that the Chinese authorities find it easier to excuse than to allow. This allowed him to meet many people who would normally be inaccessible to the West. He explored the Great Wall, followed the development of a new industrial centre and its workers and watched an area being cleared (fairly brusquel...more

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Aug 06, 2010 Timothy Hallinan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Peter Hessler has been writing wonderful pieces on China for the New Yorker for years and also wrote two books I admire, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze and Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present. His newest begins with an urge to drive the length of the Great Wall and turns into an extended meditation on the small rural towns that are emptying as their young people flood toward the special economic zones to take factory jobs. The second part of the book describes his year...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Arjen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was made possible by the automobile, and it is the car that binds the three sections of the book: driving west along the Great Wall; getting a weekend home and experiencing village life in the Hebei countryside; exploring a newly built expressway outside of Wenzhou and seeing how it urbanized the countryside. I really enjoyed Hessler's insight in village life, a part of society that I have not been able to uncover myself. Hessler shows how the car boom has brought citizens to the count...more

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Beijing CS Book Club: Country Driving, by Peter Hessler	4	12	Jan 27, 2012 08:02am
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About Peter Hessler

Peter Hessler is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he served as Beijing correspondent from 2000-2007, and is also a contributing writer for National Geographic. He is the author of River Town, which won the Kiriyama Book Prize, and Oracle Bones, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He won the 2008 National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting.

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Books by Peter Hessler

Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present

Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6945572-country-driving?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348109140l/6945572.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6945572-country-driving?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory by Peter Hessler[/url]

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory

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