By Peter Hessler"In 2001, Hessler, the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker, acquired a Chinese driver's license and embarked on a seven-year odyssey that took him from one end of the country to the other. He charts the changes the automobile has brought to China (in 2001, the country's population was 1.2 billion, but it had only about one-fifth the cars and buses of the U.S. and more than twice as many traffic fatalities). Personal driving, whether for commuting or recreation, is relatively new to the country, and such seemingly innocuous matters as the paving of a rural road can dramatically and sometimes catastrophically, affect both the countryside and the residents' way of life. It's strange for Western readers to think of such a technologically advanced country as China undergoing massive upheavals due to something as mundane (to us) as automobiles, but China is experiencing now what the U.S. experienced decades ago: increased tourism from its own citizens and an emptying-out of rural regions as residents pursue jobs in urban centers. A fascinating and frequently surprising look at China from a very unusual perspective." (Booklist Reviews)
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