China Road

Rob Gifford is a NPR correspondent. He used to be based in Beijing. I would often hear him on Market Place and All Things Considered reporting on anything to do with China. He has a very distinctive voice--a lovely British accented baritone. I could hear his voice reading China Road all the way through.

This was an ok book. Before Gifford leaves China to take on a new NPR assignment, he travels across China 3000 miles from east to west on Route 312. He talks to all sorts of people, stops in many places, and then turns his experience on this trip and as a Chinese based journalist into this book.

My main problem with the book: there was lots of information and as someone who doesn't know a lot about China, I had a hard time keeping the names and places straight. He doesn't go into a lot of detail about any one thing, making it harder to absorb everything. And, it wasn't really engaging as a memoir kind of book. So, all in all, it was mostly an introduction to me. I think I would have preferred to learn about one small piece in more depth than so much in less detail.

I saw Ted Koeppel on The Daily Show this week. He has a 4 hour piece on China coming out in July. I think I should watch it. Maybe some more will sink in for me.