Here's a page from Longitude, the specialty bookseller for travelers. To order online, and to see the latest, most comprehensive selection of books and maps, go to http://reading.longitudebooks.com/LO7161. You may also call 800-342-2164 to order or request a catalog.

These 4 items are available for $57, including U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXCHN68)

Time Out Shanghai  •  Time Out GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 310 PAGES An up-to-date guide on what to do and where to go by the people who publish Time Out Magazine. (CHN309, $19.95)
Understanding China, A Guide to China's Economy, History, and Politics  •  John Bryan Starr HISTORY •  2001 •  PAPER  • 356 PAGES John Bryan Starr, a professor of history and former director of the China Association, brings his classroom experience to this admirably brief, clearheaded introduction to contemporary China. Revised edition. (CHN196, $16.00)
Farewell My Concubine  •  Kaige Chen 1993 •  DVD The moving story of a fifty-year friendship between two men who meet as children in the Peking Opera. Their friendship continues against the backdrop of China's tumultuous political history, as their roles as king and concubine become widely recognized throughout the region, and as a beautiful woman almost comes between them. (CHN226, $14.99)
Shanghai Map  •  Periplus Maps MAP A map of Shanghai, at a scale of 1:15,000. Main streets shown in both English and Chinese (good for directing taxis!). (CHN90, $8.95)

Chinese (Mandarin), Start Speaking Today!  •  Educational Services Corporation   • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS  •  A 90-minute crash course in Mandarin featured in two compact discs and a phrasebook packaged in a vinyl sleeve. Geared for travelers, the course follows the foreign service method -- which focuses on dialogues and useful sentences instead of individual words. (CHN92, $21.95)
Chinese Rugs: A Buyer's Guide  •  Lee Allane   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A guide to the history, techniques and variety of carpets produced throughout China, featuring a helpful buyer's guide. (CHN30, $15.95)
Eyewitness Guide Beijing and Shanghai  •  Eyewitness Guides   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This superbly illustrated guide covers the top attractions in two of China's most fascinating cities. (CHN385, $23.00)
Fodor's Shanghai's 25 Best  •  Fodor's   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This shirt-pocket guide, with an excellent map of the city, includes a choice selection of attractions, shops and restaurants. (CHN60, $11.95)
Frommer's Shanghai  •  J.D. Brown   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A practical guide in the popular series, strong on where to eat, sleep and shop. (CHN220, $17.99)
Lonely Planet Shanghai  •  Bradley Mayhew   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A practical guide to Shanghai featuring maps and detailed information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. With a few color photographs and excellent travel information. (CHN91, $19.99)
National Geographic Traveler Shanghai  •  Andrew Forbes   • GUIDEBOOK  •  The history, nature, culture and attractions of Shanghai, thoroughly illustrated in dependable National Geographic style. (CHN443, $22.95)
Wallpaper City Guide Shanghai  •  Wallpaper Magazine   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A stylish, thin (it fits in your back pocket) city guide compiled by the design magazine Wallpaper's local reporters. Well-organized, with chapter tabs, many photographs and of-the-moment recommendations. (CHN361, $8.95)
The Chinese Kitchen  •  Eileen Yin-Fei Lo   • FOOD  •  An authoritative compendium of Chinese recipes and food-oriented cultural practices. Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's cookbook doubles as an introduction to China itself. (CHN134, $39.95)
A Traveller's History of China  •  Stephen G. Haw   • HISTORY  •  An admirably brief, lively history of China from early origins to today, remarkably clear and necessarily condensed. With a historical gazetteer, chronology and list of dynasties. (CHN43, $14.95)
China Road  •  Rob Gifford   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  NPR's Gifford writes with warmth and affection of his encounters with truckers, small farmers and regular folk along fabled Route 312 from Shanghai to the border of Kazakhstan. (CHN433, $17.00)
China Wakes, The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power  •  Nicholas Kristoff  •  Sheryl WuDunn   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  The authors journeyed from Tibet to Tiananmen, reporting in depth on contemporary China and its cultural dissidents. An engrossing portrait of a nation struggling to hold onto tradition while modernizing its economy. (CHN33, $16.95)
China, A New History  •  John Fairbank  •  Merle Goldman   • HISTORY  •  A sweeping history of China from the Paleolithic to Tiananmen, revised with a new chapter by Merle Goldman. A standard for history buffs. (CHN11, $22.50)
Life and Death in Shanghai  •  Nien Cheng   • HISTORY  •  A plainly told account of the horrors that took place during the Cultural Revolution in Shanghai, from an author who was a six-year political prisoner. (CHN42, $16.00)
Mountain of Fame, Portraits in Chinese History  •  John Wills   • HISTORY  •  An intriguing, novel approach to Chinese history. Instead of marching through the dynasties, Wells illuminates themes and continuities within Chinese tradition through 20 representative personalities. (CHN10, $26.95)
Shanghai Modern, The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945  •  Leo Ou-Fan Lee   • HISTORY  •  A scholarly look at Chinese urban culture in pre-war Shanghai. (CHN64, $31.00)
Shanghai, The Rise and Fall of the Decadent City 1842-1949  •  Stella Dong   • HISTORY  •  A riveting portrait of "the most pleasure-mad, rapacious, corrupt, strife-ridden, licentious, squalid and decadent city in the world." (CHN128, $15.00)
The Search for Modern China  •  Jonathan Spence   • HISTORY  •  A sweeping history of China including events until 1989, geared for an undergraduate audience. With maps, charts and black-and-white photographs. (CHN98, $29.95)
World Religions: Eastern Traditions  •  Willard G. Oxtoby   • RELIGION  •  A clear and insightful introduction to Eastern religions by a team of scholars, covering Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist and East Asian traditions. Scholarly, but still rewarding for the general reader. (ASA07, $64.95)
Search for Ancient China  •  Corinne Debaine-Francfort   • ARCHAEOLOGY  •  With information on everything from jewelry to emperors' tombs, the Great Wall and the dazzling 400-year Han empire, this shirt-pocket survey of discovery features 150 illustrations. (CHN69, $12.95)
The Arts of China  •  Michael Sullivan   • ART & ARCHITECTURE • COMING IN JANUARY  •  A comprehensive survey of Chinese visual arts and culture through the ages. It's a lively overview, thoroughly illustrated and accessible, of bronzes, ceramics, painting and architecture, from the Neolithic to the modern era. (CHN16, $39.95)
Mao Zedong  •  Jonathan Spence   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  A biographical account of Mao Zedong by the Yale Sinologist, writer and historian, tracking the life of the Chinese ruler from his provincial upbringing through his powerful reign. (CHN66, $14.00)
Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China  •  Jung Chang   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • FAVORITE  •  A riveting tale of three generations, spanning the end of Old China, Mao's regime and the Japanese occupation. Chang chronicles the enormous changes in China since 1929 through her family's story, which includes arrest during the Cultural Revolution, exile to the Sichuan wilderness and coming to terms with the bewildering state of China today. (CHN04, $16.00)
Death of a Red Heroine  •  Qui Xiaolong   • MYSTERY  •  Marvelously evocative of Shanghai, and tremendously informative about China's transition towards a market economy in the 1990s, this award-winning debut of Inspector Chen of the Shanghai police is also a page-turner. Winner of several mystery awards. (CHN374, $14.00)
Farewell Shanghai  •  Angel Wagenstein   • LITERATURE  •  Wagenstein's novel chronicles the flight of four refugees from Nazi Germany to Shanghai, where they are immersed into both the glamour and devestating poverty of the city. (CHN516, $13.95)
Flashman and the Dragon  •  George MacDonald Fraser   • LITERATURE  •  The eighth entry in Fraser's popular series of 19th-century adventures starring Harry Flashman, the womanizing rogue and international troublemaker, set in 1860s China. In this installment, our reluctant hero is hoodwinked into joining the Teiping Rebellion, participates in the Seige of Nanking and ends up as a plaything of the Dowager Empress at the Summer Palace. (CHN116, $15.00)