Showing titles in Asia

Making sense of today's world can often seem like a daunting task, especially when it comes to understanding cultures and societies seemingly diametrically opposed to one another, such as China and the United States. Fact-dense and charmingly insightful, Kaleidoscope of the East focuses on Chinese history, culture, societal development, politics, religion, and arts. This expansive collaboration introduces Western audiences to aspects of China usually forgotten by media seeking sensationalized stories.

Far from the glittering cities of Beijing and Shaghai, China's borderlands are populated by around one hundred million people who are not Han Chinese. For many of these restive minorities, the old Chinese adage "the mountains are high and the Emperor far away", meaning Beijing's grip on power is tenuous and its influence unwelcome, continues to resonate.

Japan is at a crossroads. The postwar economic miracle that brought it unprecedented development and prosperity is over. Since the publication of the first Culture Smart! guide, it has been overtaken by China as the world's second-largest economy. The balance of power in Asia has shifted and new players are entering the field. No one can predict how Japan will rise to the challenge, or what effect the changes will have on how people live, think, and behave.

From 1632 until 1854, Japan’s rulers restricted contact with foreign countries, a near isolation that fostered a remarkable and unique culture that endures to this day. In hypnotic prose and sensual detail, Anna Sherman describes searching for the great bells by which the inhabitants of Edo, later called Tokyo, kept the hours in the shoguns’ city.

The Last River: The Tragic Race for Shangri-la is a breathtaking account of the ill-fated October 1998 expedition of an American whitewater kayaking team who traveled deep into the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet to run the Yarlung Tsangpo, known in paddling circles as the "Everest of rivers." For Wick Walker and Tom McEwan, extreme whitewater pioneers, best friends, and trip leaders, the Tsangpo adventure was the culmination of a twenty-five-year quest for glory. Yet the team's magnificent dreams crumbled when their ace paddler was swept over a thunderous eight-foot waterfall, never to be seen again.

Vietnamese girls are a minefield. A very hot minefield. We've got the hoochie-koochie, but we're also a load of trouble, and an enigma wrapped in a mystery. And a bowl of pho. We come on strong, then suddenly back away. We wear extremely revealing clothes, but faint at the mention of sex. And our college girls look like ladies of the night, while our ladies of the night look like college girls. Hey, it's Vietnam! It's Vietnamese dating culture. And this book is the complete guide to succeeding in it. Is it English practice or is it a date? Mack on college students without being creepy. ...

This book was made for the many decent guys who come to Thailand for whatever reason and find themselves ensnared in a nightmare. This book will save some of you guys a fortune - and it's going to stop you from falling into the traps that have caught up with so many guys before you. You decent guys don't deserve derision - you deserve to know what's going on around you. You need to know what to look out for and when to extricate yourself from a situation.

Good to Know about Bali is a guide unlike any other. It includes a basic lay of the land, health & safety information, tips on traveling with kids, and a highly selective list of ‘things to do’. However, the book is unique in its depth of information about Balinese arts and culture and in its deeply personal insight on how to make your visit more meaningful.

Full of blunt humor, travel wisdom, and the occasional swear word, The Solo Girl’s Travel Guide combines travel instruction with travel inspiration for the only “can’t put this book down” travel guide on the market. Following a similar layout and format to Lonely Planet, The Solo Girl’s Travel Guide is a comprehensive travel guidebook in every sense but is filled with female-friendly content that makes trip-planning fun and approachable (while steering women clear of scams, creeps, and sketchy locations).

India is one of the oldest places to inhabit civilization with a history dating back thousands of years. For many centuries, people have visited this country for various reasons - to work, shelter, tourism, spiritual upliftment, and the like. India is surrounded by the great Himalayas in the north, the Arabian Sea on the West, the Indian Ocean in the South, and the Bay of Bengal in the East.

In this thrilling road trip from "Peking to Paris", a woman tries to save her car, her marriage, and her confidence from breaking down. In May 2007, leaving China’s Great Wall is Car 84, one of 128 antique autos racing in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. It’s guided by one Dina Bennett, the world’s least likely navigator: a daydreamer prone to carsickness, riddled with self-doubt, and married to a thrill-seeking perfectionist who is half-human, half-racecar. What could possibly go wrong?

Khabaar is a food memoir and personal narrative that braids the global journeys of South Asian food through immigration, migration, and indenture. Focusing on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners, the book questions: What does it mean to belong, and what does belonging in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country?

In 2016, Dion Leonard, a seasoned ultramarathon runner, unexpectedly stumbled across a little stray dog while competing in a gruelling 155 mile race across the Gobi Desert. The lovable pup, who earned the name 'Gobi', proved that what she lacked in size, she more than made up for in heart, as she went step for step with Dion over the treacherous Tian Shan Mountains, managing to keep pace with him for nearly 80 miles.

In a country where patriarchal favoritism and the primacy of sons survived multiple revolutions and an ideological earthquake, this epic novel is first and foremost about women, with the female body serving as the book’s central metaphor. The protagonist, Mother, is born in 1900 and married at seventeen into the Shangguan family. She has nine children, only one of whom is a boy—the narrator of the book. A spoiled and ineffectual child, he stands in stark contrast to his eight strong and forceful female siblings.

Hanoi: a maze of alleys, lakes, pagodas, jazz clubs, cafes, and Soviet statues. Even for us Vietnamese people, Hanoi is infamously inscrutable. It’s Vietnam’s enigma wrapped in a mystery, with egg cream on top. You can take the easy, well-trodden path: the tourist market, the tourist pho restaurant, the tourist beer street, and a dude in a glass case. Or you can go local: eat the pho that Vietnamese foodies eat, drink the coffee VIetnamese hipsters drink, and hang out on the other beer street, the one that’s not in any guidebooks, the one for locals. I'll even show you a super-creepy ...

Alastair Humphreys walked across India, from the Coromandel Coast to the Malabar Coast, following the course of a holy river. Walking alone and spending the nights sleeping under the stars, in the homes of welcoming strangers, or in small towns and villages, he experienced the dusty enchantment of ordinary, real India on the smallest of budgets. There Are Other Rivers tells the story of the walk through an account of a single day as well as reflecting on the allure of difficult journeys and the eternal appeal of the open road.

Adventurer Sylvain Tesson has led a restless life, riding across Central Asia on horseback, freeclimbing the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and traversing the Himalayas by foot. But while recovering from an accident that left him in a coma, and nursing his wounds from a lost love, he found himself domesticated, his lust for life draining with each moment spent staring at a screen. An expedition to the mountains of Tibet, in search of the famously elusive snow leopard, presented itself as a cure.

Li Juan and her mother own a small convenience store in the Altai Mountains in Northwestern China, where she writes about her life among grasslands and snowy peaks. To her neighbors' surprise, Li decides to join a family of Kazakh herders as they take their 30 boisterous camels, 500 sheep, and over 100 cattle and horses to pasture for the winter.

Are you excited about planning your next trip? Do you want an edible experience? Would you like some culinary guidance from a local? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this Eat Like a Local book is for you. Culinary tourism is an important aspect of any travel experience. Food has the ability to tell you a story of a destination, its landscapes, and culture on a single plate. Most food guides tell you how to eat like a tourist.

Explore the historic and fascinating Korean Peninsula! Have you ever dreamed of visiting South Korea? Do you wish you knew more about this rich ancient and modern culture? Are you preparing for your own trip to South Korea? If so, this is the audiobook for you! This comprehensive and inspiring audio guidebook presents intriguing and precise descriptions of South Korean life and travel.