''China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power'' is a book on
travel literature
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.
One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...
by
Rob Gifford
Rob Gifford is a British radio correspondent and journalist. He has degrees in Chinese Studies from Durham University and in Regional Studies (East Asia) from Harvard University. He began to learn Mandarin Chinese in 1987 whilst in China.
Gif ...
, first published on January 1, 2007 by
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
.
The book documents Gifford's 2004 trip across
China National Highway 312
China National Highway 312 (312国道), also referred to as Route 312 or The Mother Road, is a key east-west route beginning in Shanghai and ending at Khorgas, Xinjiang in the Ili River valley, on the border with Kazakhstan. In total it spans , pa ...
from
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
to the
China-Kazakhstan border and his observations of China. Gifford was at the end of his term as a China correspondent for
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
(NPR), and his experiences were the basis of several NPR stories.
['China Road' Trip Gauges a Nation on the Move]
Archive
. National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
. Retrieved on July 13, 2014.
Vanessa Bush of ''
Booklist
''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...
'' stated "Gifford notes an aggressive sense of competition in the man-eat-man atmosphere of a nation that is likely to be the next global superpower."
[Bush, Vanessa.]
China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power.
(review). ''Booklist
''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...
''. Retrieved on July 13, 2014. Dinah Gardner of ''
Asia Times
''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kong-based English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business, and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English and ...
'' stated that "To anyone who has lived some time in China, Gifford's book is nothing revolutionary - the editors appear to have pruned it for a reader with little knowledge of the country."
[Gardner, Dinah.]
An over-traveled road
. ''Asia Times
''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kong-based English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business, and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English and ...
''. December 1, 2007. Retrieved on July 13, 2014.
Reception
Gardner criticized "the intrusion of Gifford's religious views" and Gifford letting "moral outrage color his arguments" but concluded overall that the book "is, in every other way, a very vivid and lively piece of reportage."
[
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References
2007 non-fiction books
Books about China
{{China-book-stub