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China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power | 
 enlarge | Author: Rob Gifford
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
Buy New: $9.49
You Save: $7.51 (44%)
Rating:  64 reviews
Sales Rank: 12798
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0812975243
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.06
EAN: 9780812975246
ASIN: 0812975243
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 59 more reviews...
 very bias December 19, 2008
rose (Phila, PA)
the author is "tired of the optimistics" as he stated in the book. all he wanted to show is the negative side of view although part of them probably were true. if you really want to know a true china, you need to explore yourself broadly but not from anyone who only tells you what he wants you to know.
 A great book December 6, 2008
J. Tucker (Niceville, FL United States)
I was tasked with an unclassified China Culture Brief for our squadron's Commander's Call. I used many of Rob Gifford's facts, stories, and analysis, all of which went over well.
His story about the great wall petering out around the Hexi Corridor got my mind churning on how useless the wall really was (and the feasibility of other countries walls, for that matter.) His description of how SW and NW China are not really the China that westerners have in mind was very eye opening. How Rob encountered city upon city that have 1 million people yet are never even mentioned in the west is a true testament to how big the population size, something I'm just starting to wrap my brain around. The pictures in the middle are great, I wish Random House could have included double that amount. The cover picture is a wonderful contrast of old and new China, great idea for whoever brainstormed that one.
I read many international relations books for my job and this one was the best and clearest writing I've stumbled upon in a while.
Fascinating profile of China today October 25, 2008
Crosswycke (Mountain View, CA)
I read this book while teaching school in China Summer 2008. It was a very interesting depiction of the dichotomies in China today - on the one hand the official word and on the other the curiosity and interest of the people in everything western. It was a book that made me think a lot about what I was seeing and what my students were saying. Gifford very accurately and clearly points out the options that face China in the near future and manages to give what seemed to me an unbiased view of both sides of each option. Gifford travels to both known and little known places so it's a travelogue as well. The book is very well written and well worth reading if you have any interest in China at all. When I finished reading China Road, I passed it along to another teacher at the school who has travelled throughout China and has lived there as well. He could hardly put it down, he found it so interesting.
China Road - trip into the minds of the populace October 24, 2008
D. L. POHLE (Wisconsin USA)
Rob Gifford presents an insightful journey into the hearts of the hearts and minds of the Chinese citizens he interviews on his travels down Route 312. He also provides historical information on how China got where it is today, and his prediction on how the country will evolve in the future. His observations help outsiders understand the ever evolving mixture of loosening economical control with the maintenance of a communist political structure, and the risks it presents to China's future. Overall, an excellent and thought provoking book!
China from one side to the other October 22, 2008
Kid Kyoto (Beijing)
NPR reporter Robert Grifford travels the length of China overland meeting interesting people and seeing the sharp contrasts in this emerging power.
From the ultra-modern skyscrapers of Shanghai to farms unchanged in centuries Grifford seeks out the state of modern China in each.
Grifford's style is clear and patient, he explains the history and background of each destination and even a pronunciation guide for Chinese names. Both neophites and veteran China scholars will find things of interest.
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