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Loading... China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Powerby Rob Gifford
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Thorough, exciting, exhausting. I was so pleased to have read this book when Uyghur information was in the news. Gifford gives us a view of China not available anywhere else. (  ) corrmorr | Sep 26, 2009 |  China Road starts with the author reminiscing about his and his wife's first meeting on the banks of the Bund in Shanghai. From there he takes us on a powerful road journey from the intense, highway-circled, skyscraper-capped City of Shanghai to a tiny town in central Asia in what used to be called Turkestan. He takes route 312 the whole way. Route 312 sometimes exists just as a dirt road; out west the Chinese built it into a six lane highway. Gifford's interactions with locals throughout the journey are fascinating. He rides with truck drivers, visits villages destroyed by HIV, sleeps in the desert with Tibetans fluent in Mandarin wanting to teach Chinese in public schools (at the risk of destroying their own language and culture), and mingles with Chinese tourists and Amway distributors in Urumqi. Throughout the book I was fascinated by China's vast span of land and huge cities: the U.S. has nine cities with over one million people; China has forty-nine! This was the first book that introduced me to western China and now I'm overcome with curiosity about the region. 9-1-09 (  ) RedMaple | Sep 14, 2009 | Route 312 ifis 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 utterrly surprising, deeply personal book, acclaimed NPR reposter Rob Gifford, a fluent Mandarin speaker, takes the dramatic journey along Rte 312 from its start in the boomtown of Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. (  ) marient | Feb 11, 2009 | NPR Correspondent's road trip on China's route 66 is illuminating for the western reader, given our lack of exposure to China's long history and civilization. Gifford masterfully combines enough imformation about China's past to give an understanding of the extensive migration and rapid industrialization that has catapulted the sleeping giant into a major economic power. The narrative of his journey weaves interviews with ordinary citizens, from truckdrivers to the new yuppie elite becoming Communist party stalwarts, with descriptions of local culture and place, such as karoke bars and AIDS afflicted farming villages, leaving a stunning array of vistas and perspectives for the reader's contemplation. Eye-opening! ( ) booksmartfool | Dec 8, 2008 | Review on my blog: http://sportygoat.net/blog//index.php... (  ) astark | Jul 28, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0812975243, Paperback)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 and deeply personal book, acclaimed National Public Radio reporter Rob Gifford, a fluent Mandarin speaker, takes the dramatic journey along Route 312 from its start in the boomtown of Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. Gifford reveals the rich mosaic of modern Chinese life in all its contradictions, as he poses the crucial questions that all of us are asking about China: Will it really be the next global superpower? Is it as solid and as powerful as it looks from the outside? And who are the ordinary Chinese people, to whom the twenty-first century is supposed to belong? Gifford is not alone on his journey. The largest migration in human history is taking place along highways such as Route 312, as tens of millions of people leave their homes in search of work. He sees signs of the booming urban economy everywhere, but he also uncovers many of the country’s frailties, and some of the deep-seated problems that could derail China’s rise. The whole compelling adventure is told through the cast of colorful characters Gifford meets: garrulous talk-show hosts and ambitious yuppies, impoverished peasants and tragic prostitutes, cell-phone salesmen, AIDS patients, and Tibetan monks. He rides with members of a Shanghai jeep club, hitchhikes across the Gobi desert, and sings karaoke with migrant workers at truck stops along the way. As he recounts his travels along Route 312, Rob Gifford gives a face to what has historically, for Westerners, been a faceless country and breathes life into a nation that is so often reduced to economic statistics. Finally, he sounds a warning that all is not well in the Chinese heartlands, that serious problems lie ahead, and that the future of the West has become inextricably linked with the fate of 1.3 billion Chinese people. “Informative, delightful, and powerfully moving . . . Rob Gifford’s acute powers of observation, his sense of humor and adventure, and his determination to explore the wrenching dilemmas of China’s explosive development open readers’ eyes and reward their minds.” –Robert A. Kapp, president, U.S.-China Business Council, 1994-2004 From the Hardcover edition. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:17 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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