Alumni Travel Reading: China

For much of the first millennium CE, Xi'an formed the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, which carried goods, travelers, and ideas between China and western Asia. Valerie Hansen's new survey introduces the sites of the Silk Road and the rich network it formed across Inner Asia.

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An excellent introduction to the recent changes undergone by China combined with explorations of ancient Chinese history and the scholars who study it. Much of Hessler's reporting is set in Beijing, and his stories introduce people and sites throughout the city.

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Sichuan province, which surrounds the city of Chongqing, was the home of Liao Yiwu, several of whose interviews with ordinary Chinese people are translated in The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China from the Bottom Up (Pantheon, 2008). Many of Liao's interlocutors also come from Sichuan, and their conversations reveal much of how life there has changed over the last several decades.

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A survey of the topography and history of the Yangtze River and is a great introduction to accompany a cruise through southern China.

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Burton Watson translates excerpts from the diary of the government official Lu You as he traveled by boat up the Yangtze river and into Sichuan during 1170.

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This short novella is set in Shanghai under Japanese occupation and conveys well the flavor of the historical city.

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Modern Shanghai provides the setting for Qiu Xiaolong's crime novel.

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