John O. (buzzby) - , reviewed on 8/7/2011 + 6062 more book reviews

As the back cover suggests, this gives a "broad, comprehensive overview" of China, maybe for adults as well as children. I found it quite informative, and I count myself as moderately knowledgable about China (I just got back from there). It made a lot of sweeping statements that made me cringe when it did touch my area of knowledge ("The" Great Wall was not built 2200 years ago, it cannot be seen from the moon, Mao Zedong was not a founder of the Chinese Communist Party) but perhaps the accurate explanations are difficult to fit in a book this size. Still, what are we supposed to think with opening statements like "China is as large as it is populous."?

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