As my initial contribution to the Recommended Books series I present not one, but three volumes, all of them written by American author Peter Hessler and all of them focused on China. Collectively they represent a fascinating look at modern China as viewed through his own eyes and through the prism of the Chinese people with whom he has come in contact over a decade and a half.
As you will learn below, my reading of these books fueled my interest so much that I wound up taking a personal trip to China in June. For those who are interested, the following YouTube video features photos taken during a week-long visit to interior south China in the region of Guilin and Yangshuo.
Locations visited included the Li and Yulong Rivers, Fuli, Xing Ping, Li Gong, Juang Yao, and the incredible terraced rice paddies at Ping An in the mountains of Long Shen north of Guilin.
My review of Hessler’s three books continues below the fold.