Lonely Planet Beijing (Travel Guide)

Lonely planet quality! Precise and insightful. However, I found some of the walking or biking routes they suggested not so extraordinary. Never confine yourself to this guide when it comes to walking, unmatched street culture here, hutongs are always majestic.Historical context for the Forbidden City they give is somewhat repeating the info tables at the sight. I wish it was more stimulating.Cafes and bars recommended are 25% of the time disappointing. But, the guide still gives some direction for a total tourist.If only the guide was more assertive for you to visit Jingshan Park! A must see after the Forbidden City! I adored the community life there: old people playing, singing impromptu opera, taichi dancing and smiling! Heart warming.Also, there is endless construction going on, thanks to dizzying development in China, so some of the buses or trains are now defunct or temporarily suspended. Thus, always double check the timetables and the routes provided in the guide! Especially before going to the Great Wall, preferably with a local:- To go to Badaling by suburban train, you need to take S2 train from Huoying, subway line 13. The origin station of S2 as the book points out, Xizhimen, is now changed. I travelled there on September 18, 2017.(Though the guide's tone for Badaling is extremely discouraging, I enjoyed it.)- Direct bus to Jinshanling Great Wall, from Wanjing West, was suspended at the time of my travel, September 2017.Lastly, I got the Kindle version and found the in-text links for maps and the app's off-line function very useful.Amazing city, and overall, Lonely Planet was satisfying.

Just back from a long weekend in Beijing in Feb 2018,where I used this book cover to cover and carried it everywhere. The initial color pages noting the top things to do are a great starting point, along with the two guided walks. One big flaw that must have happened after printing is that Great Wall tickets are online only since Nov 2017, so you are warned: get your tickets online in advance! We recovered by using the guide and heading to the Temple of Heaven instead. I was especially pleased with the history section at the back which gave me Chinese history in a quick and understandable nutshell. The author has some great words and wit: he/she clearly enjoys both Beijing and wordsmithing.

Just got back from Beijing (Aug 2019), and I have to say that this guide is too dated now. (2017 edition. . .there is no updated 2018 or 2019 edition as of this review.) All the major site information is fine as well as most of the "starred" food recommendations. However, the rest of the food stuff resulted me finding a closed storefront or a completely different business. I even double-check with their companion app on iPhone, and similar issues were there too.I met up with an expat there, and she said Beijing just keeps changing too rapidly for guidebooks to catch up. So I wouldn't rely on this edition at this time for restaurant recommendations.Bottom line: Generally speaking, I've had good success with Lonely Planet, but for Beijing, this 2017 edition is too dated. AVOID.

This guide was terrific for our two week trip (end of May first week of June 2017) to Beijing. Not a great fan of how Lonely Planet guides divide up the city (cities) which does require the user to get real familiar real fast with the book. We did use two apps in addition to this guide (one for planning subway routes and one to replace our cell phone maps/GPS). While me and my travel companions might disagree with some of the recommendations for some of the sites, we took turns consulting the guide for "what to do tomorrow".

Purchased for a trip to Beijing. It worked great for me and my family with lots of great information. The subway map was used from day one and extremely helpful. Nice to have some history and hints while visiting a huge city with some much to see. If you sre going to Beijing I highly recommend this book.

Great Travel Book. Greatly assisted us in exploring and enjoying Beijing. Highly recommend it.The map and subway are great features.Knowing what is open and when is important to plan effectively.Thanks for helping make this a great trip

You know when you spend the extra money to get a brand name guide that expect to get more than for a cheaper one. Fortunately this book delivered! Comprehensive info for travelers to follow including advice about safety and culture and specific recommendations for all kinds of travelers such as families, seniors, LGBT, etc.The language parts are basically useless though. Chinese just isn't the kind of language you can sound out by reading it. If you're looking for that get a language guide like Pimsleur or something. Otherwise it is a good guide.

Best Guide Book Around

Although the book is only a couple of months old, it does not seem to capture Beijing as well as it could have. Restaurants that become touristy go down in quality/value quickly and these recommendations are outdated.

Great guide really helped us out.

Going to Beijing very soon. Picked up a few useful tips. And found some interesting places to visit!

Covers everything simply

great book great price