China

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Enthusiasm for the free market and the rediscovery of traditions mark the new China. Red flags have given way to red lanterns, Communism has been reduced to a diminishing overlay on a country in which nationalism and Confucian pragmatism fuel the drive toward a future in which long-held traditions are not entirely lost. This is China in the Third Millennium: a mix of the ancient and the futuristic, where cities with skylines that look like backdrops to sci-fi movies coexist with millennia-old monuments and values that have remained unchanged for centuries.

The nation’s immense territory juxtaposes the overpopulated plains of the east with the marvels of the west – the forests and blue lakes of Sichuan, the Himalayan peaks and Tibetan plateaus, valleys and forests, the deserts and Celestial Mountains of Xinjiang, and the breathtaking Guilin Mountains.

And then there are the great rivers: the Huanghe , the source of the creation myth of the Han, and the Yangtze , which divides the country into north and south and defines the landscape of the Three Gorges, long celebrated in Chinese literature and painting. This stretch of the Yangtze is now the world’s biggest construction site.

China is an overpopulated country: more than 60 metropolises have populations exceeding 5 million inhabitants. It is also an outdoor museum whose artistic and architectural heritage is blended with history and faith. On this subcontinent of peoples and races, religions and ethnic groups, it is difficult to find a single common thread: China instead offers thousands of stories to tell, thousands of windows to open, and thousands ofdifferent journeys to undertake. It is an immense tableau, illustrated in this volume through the power of spectacular images accompanied by highly informative texts.

This book offers the reader evocative itineraries that open the doors to the drama and splendor of China’s dramatic past and also the freedom to wander in reverie amid the treasures and beauties of one of the world’s largest and most diverse countries.