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
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Avg. Customer Rating:  59 reviews
Sales Rank: 9820
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
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
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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 54 more reviews...
 The Best Travel Essay on China Since Iron and Silk October 13, 2008
Before and after my two trips to China, 1998 and 2000, I had read just about every relatively modern travel essay on China. Mark Salzman's "Iron and Silk" had always been my favorite. Unfortunately, it was written in 1982 and the China it described has changed over in many ways many times.
I still love "Iron and Silk" but have looked and yearned for a more up to date travel essay that is more accurate regarding today's China. Until "China Road" I had never found it.
I know a lot of people liked "Rivertown" but it just did not do it for me. The recent "American Shaolin" is a great read but unfortunately tells a story from the early 1990's. China has changed so much and so fast since the end of Mao and the modernization that started under Deng and continues as we speak.
China Road nails it. This book gives you the most up to date look at China I have ever read. It is well written, the insights and commentary are fantastic, and most importantly it will give the reader a view of the China of now and not the China of 5 or 10 years ago...because the China of 1998 is not the China of 2008.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in China or thinking of going there.
 Declan September 16, 2008
This was an enjoyable read, great if you what a flavor of China but not if you want an in-depth reflection. A good travel diary. I liked it
From a reader in China September 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I pass along this review from a reader in China, L. Li.
"The author of this book came to China in 1987 when he was 21 years old to learn the language, and then stayed for nearly 20 years conducting the research and journalistic reporting. For six years, up until 2005, he held the position of the American National Public Radio Beijing's correspondent. During his work, he traveled all around China and to many other Asian nations.
In this book, the author relates a special two months of travel as his farewell to the land, crossing China from one side of China to the other, hitchhiking much of the time, or utilizing any conveyance at hand. On the road he meets and talks to all sorts of people as he journeys from Shanghai to the Kazakhstan frontier along the unassuming Federal Highway 312.
In his journey Gifford shows profound insight and sensitivity into the day-to-day life of the rapidly changing Chinese society. This, for me, was the book's greatest surprise; that a foreigner to China could possess this level of understanding, and be able to retell his insight to a native born Chinese person such
as myself. The author captures well China's local understanding of itself - especially its admirable human qualities manifest even under the weight of the nation's massive history. The work is a tribute to his years of
research.
The author also intertwines his journey with the journey of China itself, relating what he experiences to the
history of the land and the people. Finally he reflects on where this is all going, giving a forecast of the
possible futures China may face with thoughts on China's possible dangers, judgments that will be needed to keep the current China in it's present situation, on course.
But, this is the part of the book with which I felt some resentment. The author points out that China is developing perhaps too fast - and sounds an alarm for other nations as to its potential for instability. This seems to me a bit of hypocrisy, and a bit of arrogance. Consider the United States - 5% of the World population using something like 30% of the World resources. By what standard can China's rapid growth, not into riches (as in the West) but simply into modernity, be faulted so easily?"
True through not flattering picture of China August 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The author has painted a sympathetic picture of China, more realistic of the existent problems facing billions of Chinese people, instead of sticking to the useless ideological issues like social system, etc. The book tells readers the best things that the government has done regarding human rights is to make sure billions of people are free from cold and starvation. People do not need empty talks about freedom and democracy when their stomaches are empty and they do not have enough clothes against cold weather.
Great book!
Great balanced of view on China August 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A must read during these times when China is in the news every day. The best balanced view of what is going on there.
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