''China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power'' is a book on

travel literature The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the '' Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered a ...

by Rob Gifford, first published on January 1, 2007 by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

. The book documents Gifford's 2004 trip across China National Highway 312 from

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

to the China-Kazakhstan border and his observations of China. Gifford was at the end of his term as a China correspondent for

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

(NPR), and his experiences were the basis of several NPR stories.'China Road' Trip Gauges a Nation on the Move

Archive
.

. Retrieved on July 13, 2014. Vanessa Bush of ''

Booklist ''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is ...

'' stated "Gifford notes an aggressive sense of competition in the man-eat-man atmosphere of a nation that is likely to be the next global superpower."Bush, Vanessa.
China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power.
(review). ''

''. Retrieved on July 13, 2014. Dinah Gardner of ''

Asia Times ''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kongbased English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business, and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English and ...

'' stated that "To anyone who has lived some time in China, Gifford's book is nothing revolutionary—the editors appear to have pruned it for a reader with little knowledge of the country."Gardner, Dinah.
An over-traveled road

. ''

''. December 1, 2007. Retrieved on July 13, 2014.

Reception

Gardner criticized "the intrusion of Gifford's religious views" and Gifford letting "moral outrage color his arguments" but concluded overall that the book "is, in every other way, a very vivid and lively piece of reportage."

References

2007 non-fiction books Books about China {{China-book-stub