Behind the Forbidden Door: China Inside Out

Reading this book now, you have an insight into just how much damage a country can do to itself for so long. 20 years down the line, China is making the same misguided choices it is making today. It gets a little repetitive sometimes, but this is still a good read.

Tiziano's dream of China is shattered when he finally arrives there. He travels widely finding only the ruins of old China along with some temples glued together for the benefit of tourists who do not yet exist. Locals are excluded from using these relics and Tizano is excluded from mixing with them. Tiziano spends lots of time covering far flung border parts of China along the North, South, and West with the unique cultures of the people who live there and their relations with the neighboring countries. He visits a few other interesting historical less traveled spots as well. These places remain exotic for most travelers to China (been to Kashgar?) and keep the book fresh. A bit too much time in the book is covering the same problems of raised historical sites but you just skip to the next chapter to come to different issues which surprisingly most of them remain relevant all these years later. Twenty years after this book was published historical places are still being torn down and eight month pregnant woman's babies are still being forcefully aborted.