Similarly, he gives the impression throughout the book that he stops and 'chats' with the locals as they are passing through. Now, unless he's a linguist of some note this seems highly unlikely. Especially, when you consider that Chinese accents and dialects can be mutually incomprehensible within relatively few miles of each other. And especially when he arrives in the land of the Yi, Naxi and Yao peoples who speak languages that are Tibetan-Burmese linguistically. Of course, he never says he is or he isn't a remarkable linguist: but why leave readers with this impression? Does he think it adds kudos to his account?

With these reservations I am left wondering how much of the journey he actually did himself and how much he constructed from the many interviews and considerable research he carried out. After all, Lily must remain conveniently anonymous, and so we are left to take him at his word. In a review by his publisher he is described as curious, urbane, witty and knowledgeable - nowhere are significant linguistic skills mentioned, even in passing.

These reservations take the edge off the book, but it is still an interesting and thought-provoking read.


A travel book with a difference   July 24, 2003
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

When I bought this book I was actually looking for a different book by the same author but this one caught my eye – I wasn’t disappointed.

The book tells of the efforts of Simon Winchester to travel all the way along The Yangtze river from east of Shanghai to the mountains of Tibet. There’s none of the humour of Bill Bryson or Peter Moore; instead this is more the sort of book you could imagine Alan Whicker writing.

At the start, Winchester explains some of the background to the book, notably explaining upstream and downstream, and introducing his travel companion whose real name we are not told for the risk of endangering her safety with Chinese authorities. Clearly, you’re reading a serious travel book. As the journey progresses he describes in detail Shanghai, Nanking, The Three Gorges (before the completion of the hydroelectric dam being built there) and Shigu (an astonishing place a long way along the Yangtze where the river undertakes a quite astonishing turn).

The book is written against the background of bureaucracy and officialdom which at various points threaten the continuation of the story.

As someone who has travelled only very briefly in China, I was absolutely fascinated by this book which perhaps in some way provides a little insight into a country which has so very much to offer.


Interesting but largely overrated   December 12, 2002
 14 out of 17 found this review helpful

This is a nice book, and it's well-written, and in itself it is interesting. But what it lacks is more than it's got: this is NOT real travel writing. Yes, it's a story about an upstream trip up the Yangtze, but it hardly gives you a feel about the Chinese and the Chinese way of life, it lacks the atmosphere, it lacks real everyday encounters with local people, and it does not give you the thrill and excitement that you'd expect from a culture that is so immensely different from ours. We do not "travel back in Chinese time", as the subtitle claims. Where it deals with history, it mainly deals with 19th and 20th century history, and a large part of that is not Chinese history but consists of the adventures and trading interests of Westerners (the French, the British and the Americans) in China.

More importantly, the book's composition is not very well balanced. 60 out of 400 pages deal with the preparation of the trip and the arrival in Shanghai. Winchester feels it important to start his journey at the Zhong Sha light vessel, miles off the coast in the East China Sea, the very spot that most mariner's consider to be the very mouth of the river, the place where estuary encounters ocean. Technically appropriate as this may be it takes a lot of time chewing through all this and yes it does get a tad boring. Another 60 pages in the middle of the book deal with the Three Gorges Dam. Controversial as this project may be, isn't 60 pages a bit much?

What I had expected to be one of the more interesting parts of this book is the journey into rural China, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces close to the borders of Burma, India and Tibet, coincidentally the river's upper part and headwaters, which is a stretch of some 1,000 miles of the river's total length of 3,964 miles. In all, and with a lot of effort, a mere 40 pages describe this last leg of the journey... it is disappointing.


This book is enjoyable and informative...   June 5, 2002
 11 out of 14 found this review helpful

... but it doesn't accomplish what it purports on the cover! We do not travel back through Chinese history as we journey upriver. Most of the historical vignettes are of late 19th century and 20th century. I was looking forward to reading about the different dynasties that ruled China and the colourful events prior to the arrival of the Europeans, but I was most disappointed.
Nonetheless, once I got over the disappointment, I did enjoy the book albeit in a mirthless fashion. The author seemed to rediscover his wit and sense of humour at Li Jiang and carried them with him to journey's end in Tibet. Perhaps this is a just reflection of the depressing reality of traveling through modern China. It is a shame, but now I no longer want to go.