China Travel 2.0

We can see more interesting stories and infomation about china Travel from Navjot and his China Travel guidebook . With his wonderful travel and work experence in China, besides the trave guide book about China, he also writes for the Telegraph, FT and other magazines and newspapers.  When he arrived in China, he felt in love with this country at once. but before he even didnt like the Chinese culture and didnt know about Chinese. what makes the changes? Whats in the book? please read Navjot’s interview as follows.

navjot

1. Please tell us your name and brief introduction first. then please tell us some info about your China Travel book, the main content, where can we buy it? do you have a plan for the next book? what the main content then?

My name is Navjot Singh and I am a travel writer and freelance journalist, focusing on China and SE Asia. I am a British citizen of Indian origin, currently living in London. I have travelled to 25 countries around the world, and China has so far been one of the most beautiful countries I have been to. I started doing research for my travel guide in 2002- this became my first book- called the “Newcomers Handbook Country Guide: China: Including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen”. It’s a niche coffee table read for expats who want to make China their second home. Chapters cover everything to make sure that once a foreign expat is based in China, their life can be made easy to adapt to. It basically informs the reader of how to live their life in China. The book as published by an American publisher called “First Books) and the book is available on Amazon and other online stores.

guidebook

My second book is called “China: Business Travellers Handbook” (Stacey International, 2009) and this book is aimed more at the busy business visitor to China. The reader may not have much time on their hands once they are in China, and so this second book provides them with quick facts as to where to go, say for example, for lunch or dinner and so on so forth.

At the moment I have heavily busy with writing for magazines and other publications, that my time is really limited to concentrate and write another book. However, I am keen on expanding the trend for China Travel books, and my main aim is to focus on the luxury traveller. This would be those who don’t have much time on their hands, but want to dine at the best restaurant or go and see the best places in all the major cities of China. Essentially I would like my readers to fall in love with, say, Shanghai, Beijing and other cities because that’s what happened to me, and I would like other expats and visitors to China to experience this.

handbook

2. more question about your book, please tell us the most difference of your book than Lonely Plane. What make’s your book special?

This book is most certainly different from other travel guides because it is not just a simple travel guide. I would not recommend people to buy this book if they want to know how to get from, say, Shenzhen to Dalian, or what to see in Huizhou as an example. A unique aspect of this book is that it has a detailed listing of over 120 pages that give information on Hospitals for expatriates, International School, Airlines, Embassies, Chamber of Commerces’ and other detailed information for the expat. The book is also full of stories which cover my own personal experiences, and how I dealt with various situations, good or bad. My aim is to make the reader have a smooth transition into the Chinese way of living, so that they do not have to go through some of the challenging experiences which I have had to go through.

3. then back to your experience in China, would you tell us what give you the feeling that the China is special, besides the geographic and language, what is the real reasons? and is there something unforgettable to you? Please tell us a touching story in China, or some person give you this feeling,

To tell you the truth, prior to my first trip to China and Hong Kong in 2002, I did not know much about the Chinese culture, in actual fact I would even go on to say that I did not have any interest in Chinese culture. There are various reasons for this including not having much exposure to China or Chinese culture in the UK, and also being from an Indian background meant that there was automatically no connection with the Chinese culture simply because these two communities historically never really got along wit each other. It’s only since the mid 1990s that we have seen a growth in good relations between the Indian and Chinese communities both in terms of business and commercial related activities. In the UK also, it is only recently that there have been certain events where Sino-Indian relations are closer than ever.

Since childhood, I always had a passion for aviation and living near HeathrowAirport in London meant that everyday I used to see planes coming in from far flung places such as Hong Kong and China. As a kid my ultimate dream was to go and see Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong because of its hair-raising approaches into the runway at Hong Kong harbour. This is what initially led me to Hong Kong, but the sad side of this story is that I never got to see Kai Tak because it closed down in 1997, and I arrived first in China in 2002! I also had a passion for watching Jackie Chan and Jet Li’s movies filmed in Hong Kong, and it was always a dream destination for me. China seemed like a place that was portrayed as romantic and beautiful, and it is exactly that! I cannot tell you how excited I was when I first arrived in Hong Kong. It was the most wonderful feeling so much so that I really wished I can live there forever. I think the beautiful mix of the east and west is something special, and the only other place which can match this aroma is Singapore. For me whenever I land at Beijing airport, that smell, that feeling in the air tells your mind that, yes, you have arrived in China! Its almost difficult to describe on paper, but it’s the kind of feeling that makes you immediately fall in love with the city and country.

In time China has become a part of my life, and it would be wholly appropriate for me to say that China is the love of my life. I really envy the culture, the language, the food, the lifestyle and the amazing people. I think since the early 1980s the world has seen a new light that had been mysteriously hiding all those years.

4. there must be something bad experience for you in China, please tell us some of it as well.

Yes Wiser, I have sadly had plenty of bad experiences in China, but those bad experiences have not obstructed me to change my viewpoints about China. Out of something bad always something good comes out. Mistakes are made everywhere in life and by everyone. My personal bad experiences in China came about by cultural differences and language barriers. You can maybe get by when you speak the language, but it’s still a challenge sometimes to master the culture. During my first few months in China I had been admitted to hospital in Shenzhen because I was hit by a car. That was not a nice experience and I was totally shocked as to why the driver carried on driving into me, despite me crossing the road at a safe junction. I later found out that in China the driver is the king of the road, whereas in Europe the pedestrian has first priority!

5. please tell us more website for you and your book.

I don’t have an official website at the moment, although I would like to have one. I tend to be very busy meeting people at networking events around in China and the UK. I am active member of the fantastic 48 Group Club based in the UK which promotes the healthy relationships between the UK and China. I do have an author’s webpage at the http://www.redroom.com/author/navjot-singh