T H I S+W E E K

School trip!
On the road with 60 fifth-graders
By Don George, Editor

Tiger Leaping Gorge
By Simon Winchester
Greed menaces a Chinese treasure
>Books on China

D E P A R T M E N T S

The Surreal Gourmet
By Bob Blumer
An all-star meal for your sports-loving papa

Mondo Weirdo
Strange foods around the world

Postmark
Seattle:
The Liquid City
By Jenn Shreve

Passages:
"Trout Fisher's Almanac"
Trout-fishing:
The art of the unexpected

Readers' Tips and Tales
The eruption of Paricutín

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Your virtual travel agency

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L A S T + W E E K

Tuesday, June 3

Cuba libre!
By Mark Schapiro
A hot art scene brings the world to Havana's door

A full list of all
Wanderlust articles

               B O O K S   O N   C H I N A

RIDING THE IRON ROOSTER

BY PAUL THEROUX | reading "Riding the Iron Rooster" is like crossing China by rail with renowned travel writer Theroux as a personal guide. The narration breathes with quirky anecdotes, a penchant for detail and observations of everyday life in China -- from the crumbling bricks of the Great Wall and the smoky air that envelops it, for example, to a lunch banquet with members of the Chinese Communist Party -- all rendered in Theroux's characteristically vivid and graceful prose. Theroux's journey starts in London with a group of package-tour-type travelers, winds through Russia and then lands in the heart of China's villages and cities. Although somewhat controversial because of its portrayal of the Chinese, this book is a classic look at the country through the eyes of one of the greatest travel writers of the 20th century. Theroux has also just published "Kowloon Tong," a novel contemplating the hand-over of Hong Kong to China.

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MANDATE OF HEAVEN

BY ORVILLE SCHELL | anyone can regurgitate what happened in Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989. But rarely can someone put it in context. Journalist and China scholar Schell does just that in "Mandate of Heaven." He cautiously unfolds the events leading up to the bloodshed, revealing facts as if they were clues to a big mystery. By integrating the voices of the people involved in the rebellion -- on both sides -- and placing it historically in comparison to other uprisings, Schell paints an accurate and informative account of this tumultuous time in Chinese history. And the aftermath of Tiananmen Square is as interesting as its prologue, with Schell's insightful depiction of a China moving into the future with some of the Tiananmen instigators at its helm. "Mandate of Heaven" is an intriguing portrait of contemporary China and the cultural, economic and political forces that shape it.

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QUESTIONS OF HEAVEN

BY GRETEL ERLICH | an American Buddhist's climb up a sacred mountain in China.

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THE RIVER AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD

BY SIMON WINCHESTER | winchester's epic account of a journey up the Yangtze, which flows through 3,900 miles of geographically diverse and culturally rich territory from the Tibetan highlands to the East China Sea.

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