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China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
by Gifford, Rob
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 1400064678
- ISBN 13
- 9781400064670
- Seller
-
Toms River, New Jersey, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Random House, 2007. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 1st Printing Stated First Edition. Complete number line including the number one. Hard cover in very good condition with black boards & gold gilt spine lettering. Three numbers in red ink on back paste down which are not visible when dust jacket is on. Interior text block clean & tight; papers show beginning of mellow age toning; no writing, no markings to note. Contains a section of 8 leaves / 16 pages of glossy colored photographs. 322 numbered pages. Concludes with a Select Bibliography and an extensive Index. Dust jacket in very good condition with just ghost of shelf & edge wear; crease from top to bottom of back jacket flap. Not price clipped. * From the front jacket flap, ""In this utterly surprising, deeply personal book, acclaimed NPR 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 question that all of us are asking about China: Will it really be the next global superpower? Is is as solid and powerful as it looks from the outside ? And who are the ordinary Chinese people, to whom the twenty-first century is supposed to belong ?...""
Synopsis
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, 1994-2004From the Hardcover edition.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Elk Creek Heritage Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- M000283
- Title
- China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
- Author
- Gifford, Rob
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- ISBN 10
- 1400064678
- ISBN 13
- 9781400064670
- Publisher
- Random House
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2007
- Keywords
- China, Rob Gifford - Voyages - China, China - Descriptions and voyages, China - Description and Travel
- Bookseller catalogs
- Travel; History of Asia & China & Japan;
Terms of Sale
Elk Creek Heritage Books
Books are offered as described and are subject to prior sale.
Free shipping via USPS Media Mail to locations in the U.S.
All books are packaged securely and shipped via the United States Postal Service within 1 to 2 business days. We provide you with a Tracking Number.
Free shipping via USPS Media Mail to locations in the U.S.
All books are packaged securely and shipped via the United States Postal Service within 1 to 2 business days. We provide you with a Tracking Number.
Rates for USPS Priority Mail and International Shipping will be displayed at checkout.
About the Seller
Elk Creek Heritage Books
Biblio member since 2015
Toms River, New Jersey
About Elk Creek Heritage Books
Elk Creek Heritage Books opened for business in 2002 with both online selling and an open shop. We continue now as an online-only bookshop and maintain a growing inventory with new additions regularly uploaded. Our largest subject areas include History, Religion, Biography, and Fiction, however, we also carry books on many other subjects, in addition to our collection of rare and antiquarian books. Our goal is to provide you, our customer, with a completely satisfactory experience.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Number Line
- A series of numbers appearing on the copyright page of a book, where the lowest number generally indicates the printing of that...
- Price Clipped
- When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Text Block
- Most simply the inside pages of a book. More precisely, the block of paper formed by the cut and stacked pages of a book....
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
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