Lost on Planet China

Over the past two decades I guess I've read 30 or 40 books about various author's China adventures. Some have left me wanting far more details, others offered discourses akin to a dissertation but  Lost on Planet China: One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation kept me totally involved across all 382 of its pages!In addition to having experienced almost all of Taiwan's numerous attractions, geography, people, and institutions, I've trekked from Urumqi to Harbin, Yun-Chuan to Yi Ancient City and across and back the breadth of much of China. My China treks began in the mid-80's and even now are an annual event. This time, however, as I was flying from Orlando to San Francisco and onward to Shanghai, I took Troost's book with me, having quickly purchased it from my friendly Amazon supplier.I was seated in the upper deck next to a distinguished gentleman of Asian heiritage as we winged our way across the Pacific. The more I began reading Troost's book the more difficult it was to retain even a remote semblence of civility. It began with a silent smile and a mental "right on!" By the time I had reached Chapter 3 I was snickering softly. In the middle of that chapter I lost it entirely and started to laugh uncontrollaby! Suffice to say, reading this bnook was extreme fun and...one filled with extreme pathos as well.Troost takes us into the pathway of "ladies of the night" (and day), to sleazy hotel lobbies wherein kids pee in ash trays in front of the world, and to silent and sobbing descendents of the "Nanjing Rape." He gives us glimpses of helter-skelter city streets, international botiques, buses laden with Tibetan pilgrims passing along side of their peer supplicants crawling toward Lhasa on hands and knees. He shares the sheer terror of scaling the edges of rock cliffs with nothing but swirling currents and jagged rocks hundreds of feet below. He goes into the true "heart of darkness" into a China that few of we mere mortals would dare to go, always questioning, commenting upon, and sharing his amazement of what he is experiencing.Troost doesn't polish this Chinese apple easily, rather, he peels it layer upon layer, like an onion that varies from being sweet and solid to the stench of rotting flesh. It is truly an adventurous read. On balance, what is left is the wonder, the hilarity, especially that shared as he explores the drug-laden streets of selected hamlets in Yunnan Province. He has no qualms about commenting as to how he feels about human rights, politics, equity, and other items on his list of social ills, and what he writes rings true. Just ask some of the friends you may make if eventually you find yourself returning time and time again to continue your own China 101 class.By now the man sitting next to me, trying his best to ignore my escalating comedic cues accompanied by gasps of surprise and sorrow, was curious. I told him I was reading a book about the "real" China, one that only one who'd been there-done that, would have appreciated. While he was an American-born Asian, he'd be making one of his very few trips to his homeland this time and professed he knew comparatively little about his counmtry. Seeing the delight on my face he noted the title and promised to order the book upon his return to America. I truly hope he enjoys the trip upon which Maarten Troost takes him!

A little over six months ago I booked a 'vacation of a lifetime' to China. I say it that way, because it is costing me three times as much money as any trip I have ever taken in my life before. I have bought several travel guides on China as well as this book. This book is more of a narrative than a guidebook, and it is well written from the point of view of the author.That said, the book appears designed to frighten the hell out anyone reading it. It's sole purpose seems to be to fill you with horror upon horror as you contemplate what a Westerner will experience travelling through China. To be frank, the book left me so worried that I am now deeply concerned I have wasted an enormous amount of money on this vacation from hell.What horrors? Well, apparently reading this book leaves you convinced that your trip to China will involve* Children urinating and defecating everywhere in the streets, most likely right where you are about to step.* Air so foul and horrific that it will leave you wheezing and exhausted from the putrid thick soup of it.* An environment so befouled that the traveler could go weeks without ever seeing the sun.* A toilet situation so grotesque I don't even want to re-iterate it here.* A population that invades your personal space and behaves in a fashion so rude compared to what Westerners are used to that it may cause you to have a stroke. People choking up every grotesque fluid they can eject from the bowels of their throat, lungs, and stomach only to launch them everywhere you step.* Traffic that will kill you* Abject poverty so brutal it will take your breath away; a mass population treating you like a walking ATM machine as you are assaulted non-stop by beggars, merchants, and prostitutes every time you take two steps.And the book goes on, and on, and on, from there.It's not just this book alone either; most of the other China guidebooks I have read also trot out a laundry list of horrors that appear designed to frighten away anyone from ever considering traveling to this God forsaken country.So, if you never plan to travel to China in your life, and you want to feel completely self satisfied that you are making a wise and rational decision on that point, then I strongly recommend this book. Because you will never, ever, want to get anywhere near the place after you read this book of horrors.

I've read a couple of this author's books and I really enjoy them. I love the author's dry sense of humor and the humor about is observations. I have only been to Hong Kong (which I loved) so I can't compare his impressions to mine of China as a whole, but the time of year I went to Hong Kong, the smog bad at all. But I went in October. Anyway, he's funny!

I read a number of Troost's other books and really enjoyed them. Sadly this was not the case for this one. My main gripe with the book was the writing style: it seems the author had aged significantly, specifically his playfulness and sense of curiosity, between this book and his island atoll adventures.A lot of the book was just a compendium of a boring travel journal that I struggled to get through at times. Also, the author seems to arrive in China with some concrete preconceptions that he hangs on to for dear life. I do not feel he was open at all to his travel, and kept wondering why I was reading this flat monochrome wandering.A real disappointment as I was fully geared up for an exploration of China through the daft and manic mind that took me round in circles on the pacific atoll.

Very mixed reviews on here about this book. I enjoyed it. The writer spends several months it seems traipsing across China visiting most of the major cities and tourist sites as well as a few more out of the way locations. It is very much a travelogue and not a commentary on the state of modern China, however, (and who can blame him) the author does on several occassions give us his opinions on the country he's travelling through and the people he encounters. For the most part, they're not very complimentary. As far as I'm concerned: fair enough. His observations seem to me pretty spot on. A lot of what he describes I've seen and experienced personally, and while there is undoubtedly some cultural bias apparent, there's a lot less than some reviewers suggest.

this is the third book i ve read of maarten , i call him marteen because he has got the magic to make you feel so familiar with him , i found that this book is more mature than the 2 previous books ,life sex with the cannibals and getting stoned with savages. i ve not finished the book yet , but this author is just magic! in my rainy and cold central europe i open his book on the evening and it is just a magic world of intelligence of good sense of humour, compassion and humbleness and a real interst to the country he is visiting. i am quite scared to finish to read his book ,and read another books , because other authors seem ridiculous if compared to our unique globbe trotter and magician author. such a likeable guy .greetings from switzerland.pierre

V interesting and funny book.

we read this as we travelled around china, and it was very funny and observant, in fact we had noticed many of the same things we read about