On The China Road With Rob Gifford

From 1999 to 2005 Rob Gifford was National Public Radio’s Beijing correspondent. During that time, he reported on the revolutionary changes that swept China then and continue to dramatically alter the lives of the Chinese people.

Just before leaving China to become head of NPR’s London office, Gifford spent his final Summer traveling Highway 312, China’s equivalent to Route 66. From Shanghai on the east coast to the border with Kazakhstan in the west, 312 cuts a multi-lane swath across modern China, illuminating the rapid pace of the country’s economic, social and technological development. In “China Road”, Gifford, a fluent Mandarin speaker, shows us a China not often seen along the tourist routes. And what an eye-opening trip it is.

Gifford displays an open curiosity, sincere enthusiasm, as well as a sometimes roiling frustration with his adopted home of six years as he describes the country’s uneven development. He attends a provincial Amway meeting, preaches a church sermon when the regular minister doesn’t show up, and spends the night under desert stars with an ethnic Uighur talking about everything from radical Islam and Chinese wine, to educational opportunities for minority populations. People like talking to Gifford and it shows. The book is filled with conversations with ordinary Chinese people explaining their country to him and to us, as well as posing questions they themselves have about the future of their own rapidly changing homeland.

“China Road” is a fascinating look at a country riding a roller coaster into the 21st century. And it’s a delightful book to start out your 2010 reading list.