A very accessible, often laugh-out-loud funny, always illuminating trip around one of the most fascinating countries in the world

After living in China for five years, and learning the language, Peter Hessler decided to undertake an even more complicated endeavor: he acquired his Chinese driving licence. An eye-opening challenge, it enabled him to embark on an epic journey driving across this most enigmatic of countries. Over seven years, he travelled to places rarely explored by tourists, into the factories exporting their goods to the world and into the homes of their workers. Full of extraordinary encounters and details of life beyond Beijing, it is an unforgettable, unique portrait of the country that will likely shape all our lives in the century to come.

"An extraordinary, genre-defying book . . .Beautifully constructed . . . Hessler's reportage is vivid." - * Daily Telegraph on Oracle Bones *

"Highly entertaining, hugely informative." - * Good Book Guide *

"[Hessler] has a sensitive eye for the sort of detail that can bring his account vividly alive even to those of us who have never been near the Far East, as well as an easy conversational style that almost makes you feel you have met him yourself." - * Sunday Telegraph *

"[Hessler] is very entertaining...he is engaged without being patronising, and offers insights into a country undergoing phenomenal change." - * Guardian *

"Impressively researched. ... [Hessler] writes with the authority of experience [yet] retains a delighted and delightful wonder." - * Daily Mail *