Top 10 Beijing (EYEWITNESS TOP 10 TRAVEL GUIDE) Paperback – July 15, 2013

I'm a fan of the Top 10 series of books. They give you a good place to start for seeing the highlights of a city. I've been to Beijing a few times, and the city is so huge and complex that you need a good place to start if you only have a few days. Even if you're taking a guided tour, these books are still helpful because you'll be overwhelmed at places like the Forbidden City and want to make sure you are aware of the highlights before you step foot in it.The strongpoint of this book is the size. They practically live in my pocket when traveling and I use them for quick reference and are filled with post-it notes from research. The maps are decent for navigation when wandering around aimlessly.I've used DK Top 10 books in 20+ cities on 6 continents and am comfortable with them. They won't give you indepth city tips, but will give you a brief overview with lots of colorful photos and nice diagrams. Certainly the more research you do, the better and that includes other books. But if you want to get started and were *only* doing Beijing and needed a Top 10 book, the DK Top 10 Beijing is a great place to start.

I'm giving this guide 3 stars because it does give a decent overview of things to do in Beijing and the map is pretty good.Otherwise this book was a waste. Beijing is a huge city with a lot of traffic and it's very crowded. It can take a very long time to get anywhere and this guide doesn't explain any of this. My wife and I are independent travelers and don't do tour bus vacations. We had many frustrating moments just getting around and some guidance would have been helpful. For instance, explaining which exit to leave the Metro stations would have been a huge help as crossing the streets can be impossible from street level and venturing back into the subway station is difficult with the crowds.I never expected a DK Top Ten Beijing to be a complete guide for us. We've gotten one for every trip and they've always been pretty good. But this one is just filled with so much misinformation that I question whether the author has actually even traveled to China.The three stars I'm giving is generous. I am baffled by the five stars reviews this book has gotten and question whether those people even got off of their tour busses for more than a snap shot.

Wonderful! Bought it for my travel clients and they used it to help find lodgingand plan sightseeing trips.

A handy guide to the central highlights in Beijing and its immediate surroundings, this book is sufficiently compact to carry around. It also comes with a detachable subway map, as well as a convenient pull-out map. Quite a lot of info in a small package.

We really like the Top 10 books - very easy to follow and carry around.

Good book that accurately portrayed many of the places we visited during the trip.

This book made my life easy ,on my trip to Beijing.It is a smaller book than all the other tourist guides on Beijing,but has it all.I have visited a lot of the good restaurants which where mentioned in this book.Easy to carry.

I purchased this as a gift for someone else and am not sure how they perceive it's value...more to come