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The publisher says: Pakistan is a country for the truly intrepid. Whether you're trekking in mind-blowing mountain-scapes, experiencing life in a Pashtun village, standing awestruck in front of one of the world's biggest mosques or wandering through fabled bazaars -- be prepared for a warm-hearted welcome, and expect the unexpected. You'll need a reliable companion, and this guidebook is it. We cover the country -- so you can too -- from Karachi to Peshawar and up the Karakoram Highway into China. Get informed about Pakistan's history, politics and culture with chapters written by experts in their field. Find your way with the help of 90 easy-to-use maps, including customized itinerary maps. Our experts give you details on Pakistan's best treks. Keep out of trouble with vital safety tips, from advice on how to dress to places to avoid.

Details:
Title: Pakistan & the Karakoram Highway (7th edition)
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Pub. date: May 2008
Author: Sarina Singh (editor)
Paperback; 424 pages
List price: $26.99
ISBN-10: 1741045428
ISBN-13: 978-1741045420

The publisher says: Choose the only guide that gives you complete coverage of China's top attractions, plus introductions to unique places unknown to other guidebooks, and outspoken opinions on what's worth your time and what's not, written by current and former residents with comprehensive knowledge of the language and culture. Includes establishment names listed in both English and Chinese characters, making it easier for you to get around and find the places you're looking for. Includes detailed Chinese language and menu guides. Our authors, experienced China travelers who've written about the country for years, offer valuable insights and paint a vivid picture of a country that's undergoing one of the most fascinating cultural and economic transformations in history.

Details:
Title: China (3rd edition)
Publisher: Frommer's
Pub. date: March 24, 2008
Authors: Simon Foster, Jen Lin-Liu, Sharon Owyang, Sherisse Pham, Beth Reiber, Lee Wing-sze, Christoper Winnan
Paperback; 928 pages
List price: $24.99
ISBN-10: 0470181842
ISBN-13: 978-0470181843

The publisher says: Energy, excess, glamour: Discover what today's Shanghai is all about. Rub shoulders with tai-chi experts and ballroom dancers along the historic Bund. Explore Shanghai's traditional temples and the coveted French Concession. Treat yourself to first-rate fusion cuisine and countless boutiques and markets -- or just gobble dumplings by the dozen. This smart and streetwise guide will show you Shanghai's best-kept secrets. Pick up the pulse of the city: We show you minimalist bars, hard-to-find clubs, acrobats and Chinese opera. Find it with ease: Clear, user-friendly maps and Chinese script take you where you want to go. Escape and explore with excursions to the gardens of Suzhou and the Southern Song capital, Hangzhou. Feast like a local: Opinionated reviews uncover the flavors of Shanghai, from the cheapest dining to the most decadent. Indulge in retail therapy: We show you Shanghai's best market bargains, boutiques and bazaars.

Details:
Title: Shanghai (4th edition)
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
Pub. date: February 2008
Author: Damian Harper
Paperback; 290 pages
List price: $19.99
ISBN-10: 1741046688
ISBN-13: 978-1741046687

The publisher says: Ever since Marco Polo published his wide-eyed report on Khanbaligh, or Cambaluc, the city of the Mongol khans, Peking -- as Beijing has been known for most of the past 300 years -- has captured the Western imagination as few other ancient cities have. Beijing Walks presents six detailed walking tours of the most important historic quarters of the Chinese capital -- the Forbidden City, the former Legation Quarter, Beihai Park, the Temple of Heaven, the Confucius Temple and the Summer Palace. All tours are placed in their imperial contexts and enlivened with drawings and photographs. The author offers vital information on everything from feng shui, Pekingese dogs and Peking duck to Peking Opera and the emperors' private lives, evoking the sights, sounds and smells of old Peking, its pleasures and its grandeur. Includes a Chinese-English index, 115 color photos and 17 maps.

Details:
Title: Beijing Walks: Exploring the Heritage (1st edition)
Publisher: Odyssey
Pub. date: Jan. 28, 2008
Author: Don Cohn
Paperback; 384 pages
List price: $24.95
ISBN-10: 962217762X
ISBN-13: 978-9622177628

VIA the invaluable China Digital Times comes word that coffee-addicted visitors to Beijing's Forbidden City can once again find an on-site cafe.

Why is that news? Last year, a China Central Television news anchor and blogger named Rui Chenggang began a campaign targeting the presence of a Starbucks in the Forbidden City complex. The shop had operated within the walls of the former imperial palace for nearly seven years without attracting much notice, but Mr Rui argued that the Starbucks was an "affront to Chinese culture." The issue became a test case of the power of the Chinese blogosphere, with the outcry—later picked up by the mainstream media in China and abroad—eventually forcing Starbucks to close its shop.

LAST WEEK, the digital clocks across Beijing counting down to the start of the 2008 Olympics hit 330 days. That might not seem like an important milestone—unless you’re an American looking to attend next year’s games.

Given flight restrictions between U.S. airports and China, American travelers have long been warned that airline tickets to the Middle Kingdom next August will be hard to come by. But the rush for bookings has been complicated by a general rule followed by American carriers, opening flights for reservations exactly 330 days in advance. So if you go to an online booking site today, you can get a Washington, D.C.-Beijing flight, for example, to arrive in time for the August 8th Opening Ceremonies. But you can’t book a return flight for August 25th, the day after the Olympics finally end. All in all, it isn’t exactly the most traveler-friendly system.

And why 330 days, anyway? I asked representatives from three different airlines, and no one could provide me with a clear answer. (The best I could get was the illuminating information that 330 days is, indeed, less than one year.) Even more curiously, Canadian and British flights appear to open for booking 353 days in advance. If you aren’t an airline executive, the logic here might be a bit hard to grasp. But if you are looking to attend the festivities in Beijing, you'd better start counting.

SAY HELLO to a new breed of traveler. A study by the credit card company MasterCard found that many of China's newly wealthy city-dwellers want to spend some of their money on travel. We're not talking about small change, either: these nouveaux riches have a lot of money to burn. By 2015, Reuters reports, there will be 8.5 million rich households in China with a combined $117 billion of disposable income. That's a lot of plane tickets.

For now, though, most of China's parvenus confine themselves to trips to Hong Kong and Macau. But even that is changing: frequent travelers, it seems, prefer freer places further abroad. Europe and (gasp!) America are especially popular.