Read up on China travel

Kari and Little Boy in Beijing

The coming Olympic Games in Beijing have spurred production of a slew of new travel-related guides to China. Along with books from most of the major travel publishers come four noteworthy products, each offering readers a completely different experience: a literary companion, Mobil and Zagat guides and a bilingual map.

• China: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Whereabouts Press, $14.95), edited by Kirk A. Denton, provides a way to see the country through fiction "that offers a strong sense of place," Denton says in his introduction. The stories, written from 1921 to 2003, range in setting from the mountains and streams of West Hunan, to silkworm-raising country and sorghum fields, to the high plateaus where Tibetan culture mingles with that of the Han Chinese. Other stories are set in the booming metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Themes include the place of tradition in a modern society, changing values, poverty, the effects of globalization and identity.

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