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Peter Hessler
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Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip Kindle Edition

by Peter Hessler (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 724 ratings
Editors' pick Best Nonfiction
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“Hessler has a marvelous sense of the intonations and gestures that give life to the moment.” —The New York Times Book Review

From Peter Hessler, the New York Times bestselling author of Oracle Bones and River Town, comes Country Driving, the third and final book in his award-winning China trilogy. Country Driving addresses the human side of the economic revolution in China, focusing on economics and development, and shows how the auto boom helps China shift from rural to urban, from farming to business.

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    452 pages
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    HarperCollins e-books
  5. Publication date
    January 21, 2010
  6. File size
    3370 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2010: There is, as everyone knows, no place in the world changing as fast, and at such scale, as China. Accounts of the upheaval can be breathless and even alarming, but Peter Hessler is the calmest and most companionable of correspondents. In his reporting for the New Yorker and in his books River Town, Oracle Bones, and now the superb Country Driving, he's observed the past 15 years of change with the patience and perspective--and necessary good humor--of an outsider who expects to be there for a while. In Country Driving, Hessler takes to the roads, as so many Chinese are doing now for the first time, driving on dirt tracks to the desert edges of the ancient empire and on brand-new highways to the mushrooming factory towns of the globalized boom. He's modest but intrepid--having taken to heart the national philosophy that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission--and an utterly enjoyable guide, with a humane and empathetic eye for the ambitions, the failures, and the comedy of a country in which everybody, it seems, is on the move, and no one is quite sure of the rules. --Tom Nissley

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In his latest feat of penetrating social reportage, New Yorker writer Hessler (Oracle Bones) again proves himself America's keenest observer of the New China. Hessler investigates the country's lurch into modernity through three engrossing narratives. In an epic road trip following the Great Wall across northern China, he surveys dilapidated frontier outposts from the imperial past while barely surviving the advent of the nation's uniquely terrifying car culture. He probes the transformation of village life through the saga of a family of peasants trying to remake themselves as middle-class entrepreneurs. Finally, he explores China's frantic industrialization, embodied by the managers and workers at a fly-by-night bra-parts factory in a Special Economic Zone. Hessler has a sharp eye for contradictions, from the absurdities of Chinese drivers' education courses—low-speed obstacle courses are mandatory, while seat belts and turn signals are deemed optional—to the leveling of an entire mountain to make way for the Renli Environmental Protection Company. Better yet, he has a knack for finding the human-scale stories that make China's vast upheavals both comprehensible and moving. The result is a fascinating portrait of a society tearing off into the future with only the sketchiest of maps. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0035D9UX2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books (January 21, 2010)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 21, 2010
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3370 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 452 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 724 ratings

About the author

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Peter Hessler

Peter Hessler

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Peter Hessler is a correspondent for the New Yorker and a contributor to National Geographic. He is the author of ORACLE BONES and RIVER TOWN, which won the 2001 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. In 2011 he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation 'genius grant'. Born in Columbia, Missouri, he now lives in Cairo with his wife and daughters.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
724 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

A. Menon
5.0 out of 5 stars great window into the dynamism of life in china
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2010
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Country Driving is a fantastic narrative on life in China. The author, a long time resident and expert, spent years travelling the country visiting life along the remnants of the great wall, the rural village and life in the factory. All are interesting and illustrative. Given the speed at which things are changing in China, its very easy to just look at top-line growth and assume that rising tide floats all boats; this book shows the real life situations people in various walks of life are going through and the local changes that are occuring as a function of the direction the economy is going.

The author starts his journey early in the decade with the goal of exploring the Great Wall. He describes some of the myth and history and discusses the relative lack of research that is done on it. The book starts at a time where things seem truly like the wild west, with roads not built, drivers had no training, examples of driving questions and popular answers are embedded in the chapter and its hard not to see the comedy.

The author then goes on to visit the village and spend time there. Renting a house he lived through the growing of tourism and evolution of local politics. The urbanization issues are discussed and one gets a sense of the dying situation that is going on at the village level. One get a sense of the guanxi that people must follow, and learning by direct use of the characters is very illuminating.

The book then ventures into life in the factory. The industrial towns that form purely to take advantage of migrant/rural labor is where the final chapter is based. One is told the story of a start up plastic ring factory and the history of the characters involved. One gets a real sense of the entrepreneur in china, at the labor level, management level as well as owner level.

All in all this makes for very enjoyable reading. The book does come together well as an overview of life in china for most people. It doesnt seem like it was written with what came out as the initial goal, the second 2 chapters have a different spirit to them than the first, but it still comes together well and is hard to put down.
7 people found this helpful
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Zachary Schreiber
5.0 out of 5 stars When assigned reading goes right.
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2013
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Peter Hessler's Country Driving was an assigned reading for my Chinese Civilization class, as part of our final section about Chinese modernization. I have been lucky enough to have this professor before, and she has always been great at assigning readings that are genuinely interesting as well as educational and relevant. She has previously assigned both "The China Fantasy" by James Mann and John Pomfret's "Chinese Lessons", both excellent reads. This book is a work of autobiographical non-fiction recounting Hessler's time in China.

I want to start where my first impressions began, with the cover. Normally I don't tend to care much about covers of books, but this one struck me negatively at first. Something about it seemed unecessarily artsy and pretentious. However the cover is actually an image from Hessler's travels in China, and that policeman statue is actually one of many that the Chinese government used to place along the nation's new highways, because they did not yet have the infrastructure to effectively police the new expanses of road. So the cover went from seeming pretentious to being pretty hilarious rather quickly.

Anyway, the book is divided up into three sections titled “The Wall,” “The Village,” and “The Factory.” Each is about a different period of Hessler's travelings around China, and explore different parts of how the Chinese people are reacting to the new economic paradigm in the country.

“The Wall” is basically just about a road trip Hessler went on, traveling Westward from Beijing following the fragments of the Great Wall toward the Tibetan Plateau. The best part of this section to me was the historical information. Between notable encounters on the road Hessler explores the history of the Great Wall (a misnomer, as the wall is actually more like many fragments of defensive infrastructure than one long wall).

It was also great for de-sensationalizing the Great Wall. To the locals it is just part of the scenery, and historically it was pretty common to simply steal bricks and materials from the nearby wall in order to complete local construction projects. Traditionally the Chinese did not even refer to it as the Great Wall (or any one word at all, in fact), but the Western notion caught on and actually transmitted backward into the Chinese lexicon as 長城，literally “Long Wall.”

“The Village” was my favorite section. Hessler and a friend of his rented a home in the rural town called Sancha, and got to experience first hand how the changing economy affect rural Chinese life. The growth of enterprise, specifically tourism, molded the village's economics and environment. He also got to be a part of the local village politics with the Communist Party and saw the subtle power struggle that went on beneath the surface of village life. The bond he formed with the Wei family and his personal experiences with them made for a great read, and a pretty emotional experience.

“The Factory” was probably my least favorite section, but also arguably the most important in the larger “scheme of things”. This chapter handled the growth of manufacturing in Southern China, and raised such issues as migrant workers, corruption, quality control, and the health concerns of working in Chinese industry. It has a generally darker tone, as there is a lot of financial struggle and stressful business dealings involved, but this seems to be the new reality of Chinese economics. It is important information for East Asian scholars to understand.

In way of a summary I will just remark that I plan to read Hessler's other books based on how much I enjoyed this one, which is generally uncommon for me. Highly recommended to interested individuals!
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
irene
5.0 out of 5 stars divertente, intelligente e istruttivo
Reviewed in Italy on July 8, 2017
Verified Purchase
è un modo divertente per conoscere un paese di cui sappiamo troppo poco. è scritto in un inglese semplice e piacevole.
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A_Harford
5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful and insightful read about the transformation of rural China
Reviewed in Canada on September 12, 2015
Verified Purchase
A delightful and captivating read. One the first third of the book is a road trip narrative. The second and third parts of the book follow several protagonists as the Chinese countryside is transformed into an industrial center. The books is fun to read, and provides insight into Chinese culture, local institutions and the influence of the Chinese communist party in rural China. Definitely recommended!
One person found this helpful
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Holdenmensch
5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and informative!
Reviewed in Germany on January 19, 2016
Verified Purchase
I read the book at the end of a one month trip from Beijing to Yunnan province. I rediscovered aspects described in the book that I also experienced during my travels + I learned new stuff or could finally explain to me some Chinese behaviour ;)

Very recommendable!
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E Wood
5.0 out of 5 stars Country Driving - A Chinese Road Trip
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2012
Verified Purchase
As interesting and perceptive ingsight - well written and with sensitivity - but, as with all reviews of such nature, one has to draw on a variety of different writings to build a picture of the complex situations that face any country and, whilst the writing can be humorous at times, one needs to be careful not draw on all these perspectives in creating any opinion. Well worth reading. You will not be disappoitned and it is a captivating book - offering a variety of insights into the complexity of any developing situation - the dangers and the benefits. This book will certainly add to your understanding and should be appoached as the input of someone who has a creative understanding of China and repsect for its people.
2 people found this helpful
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L. Pascal
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece of journalism
Reviewed in France on February 5, 2012
Verified Purchase
Forget the first story, "the wall" which is just average. The 2 other ones, "the village" and "the factory" are just masterpiece of journalism. I have never read something like that before. I guess because to achieve this level of journalism, you need a lot of time, commitment, humility and of course excellent writing skills, things very rare to find in one single man (or you may have the skills but not the time). I would recommend this book both for those who want to learn about modern China, and to those who want to write investigation journalism.
One person found this helpful
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