Censorship in China

I've finally arrived back in HK after a 2-week holiday in Shanghai and Beijing. The trip was great, although (I can't believe I'm about to write this) I think the holiday may have actually been a little too long. In all reality, the main tourist sites in Shanghai can be seen in 2-3 days, while the main tourist sites in Beijing can be done in 3-4 days. I spent a total of about 6 days in each city, which was good because I wasn't stressed about having enough time to get to each place I wanted to see, but because I didn't take my laptop with me I realized that I was going to have a lot of work when I came back to HK. I made good use of my free time by checking out the local massage scene, and was duly impressed.

Anyways, during all of my spare time in Shanghai and Beijing I also sought out book shops because I quickly finished the 2 books I had brought with me, and I'm always on the hunt for a nice, new book to read. In most of the larger book shops I went to, the Lonely Planet guidebooks were always easy to spot because of the large number of books available for all sorts of countries. I was on the lookout for the China Lonely Planet guidebook because the guidebook I bought in Boston before I left was published in 2005, and I figured there would probably be a lot of updates that I should know about. However, to my dismay, in both Shanghai and Beijing they did not have the Lonely Planet guidebook on China for sale.

So today I had some spare time in the Shanghai airport as I was waiting for my flight back to HK, and one of the bookstore employees approached me looking to sell a CD that could teach me Mandarin. I let her make her case, but I didn't feel like spending the money on it, so I told her I would browse around the store and think about it. I made my way over to the Lonely Planet guidebook section, and sure enough I couldn't find the one for China. I ask the salesperson why the China Lonely Planet guide was not for sale in China, and she said that she couldn't explain it in English, but she said something about Taiwan, and so I began to realize why it wasn't for sale. I hypothesized that the book said something controversial about Taiwan's relationship to China, and that's why it wasn't for sale.

Sure enough, I did some searching on the internet and found this article, which confirms that indeed the China Lonely Planet guidebook is not for sale in China because a map inside of the book has Taiwan in a different color than China, inferring that in fact they are 2 separate countries. As many of you may or may not know, Taiwan's supposed independence is a big deal among Chinese people, and the Chinese government is always making threats about attacking Taiwan and forcing it to become part of the mainland political system. I asked the salesperson in the Shanghai airport bookstore how Taiwan's inclusion or non-incusion as part of China would affect her life, and she couldn't really answer me.

So tonight when I got back to HK, after food shopping I went to one of my favorite bookshops, and sure enough I found the China Lonely Planet guidebook. It was published in May 2007 and so I'll probably buy when I'm planning my next big trip in China.

I'll have more pictures and stories from my recent travels to share in the next couple of weeks.