Thalia

China is a country on the move, and Route 312 - China's Route 66 - is the artery along which 150 million Chinese are daily travelling in search of work and a better life. Running 3,000 miles from the east-coast boomtown of Shanghai to the border of Kazakhstan in the northwest, crossing many ethnic and provincial boundaries, it is the transcontinental road that Rob Gifford has always wanted to travel. "As I prepare to set off on my journey along Route 312, there's one big question that I want to answer. Which is it going to be for China, greatness or implosion? Can the country really become the twenty-first-century superpower that many predict? Or could it all collapse, like the Soviet Union, weighed down by the legacies of the past and the contradictions of the present? And if it does go on to greatness, what kind of country will China be? Can it ever make the transition to a modern, democratic state? "Part personal pilgrimage, part reportage, Gifford's book cuts right through the middle of the turmoil. Sometimes poignant, often funny but always engaging, the author's quest to get to the heart of the new China and his ability to talk to everyone across the social spectrum - from truckers and prostitutes to yuppies and travelling salesmen - makes "China Road" an outstanding travel narrative.