Preparatory reading...China
 

Travelling solo to China in the Spring. Am now doing pre-trip planning. Can anyone suggest some good preparatory reading? History, culture, sociology, fiction set in China? Most anything goes - I am a bookworm.
Thanks!

Here are some books we enjoyed reading before going: Travelers'Tales China, ed. O'Reilly; Travelers' History of China by Stephen G. Haw; River Town by Peter Hessler; Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux; and The Early Arrival of Dreams by Rosemary Mahoney.

Thanks Marija. Have added them to my list!

This question has been asked before, and if you do a search on this list, you will find many wonderful recommendations. My personal favorite is The Wild Swans, the story of three generations of Chinese women during the 20th century, from the end of the Qing dynasty to the rise and fall of Mao.

Anything by Jonathan Spence if you want history. A wonderful (but hard to find novel) is Bittersweet. Anything by Pearl Buck, of course. The novels by Anchee Min are quite good.