Learn Chinese the natural way - from a Norwegian! Join Cantonese fundamentalist Cecilie Gamst Berg as she journeys through the non-stop surrealism that is today's China. Traveling by camel, sleeper bus and train across the deserts of Xinjiang, through the backwoods of Tibet, over the mountains of Sichuan to the outlying islands of Hong Kong, Cecilie shows how China is not only the fastest-changing place on earth, but also the most fun.
I cannot remember the last time I read such an insightful, yet hilarious, assessment of modern China ... I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in China and Hong Kong and how, despite their problems, they remain fascinating to both the traveller and the resident.
Within a few pages, readers begin to experience a surprising wish to meet the author. She conveys such a vibrant joie de vivre, making it easy to smile and adopt the same zestful attitude. She must be fun to know, a talkative live-wire. ... Readers share the sights, sounds, tastes and humor of the author's travels without facing the bad weather, hassles and long train rides. That's worth the price of a book. Don't Joke on the Stairs isn't the most comprehensive book ever written about China. It's not the best-researched, the most insightful or the most enlightening. But it may be the most fun to read.
