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Formats
Hardcover Book Details
  • 06/2022
  • 9781543769715
  • 100 pages
  • $71.20
Paperback Book Details
  • 06/2022
  • 9781543769692
  • 100 pages
  • $56.32
23 Reasons to Fall in Love with Hangzhou
23 Reasons to Fall in Love with Hangzhou is a travel book that highlights the wonders and beauty of Hangzhou, China. From carefully hidden secret spots known to locals only, to some of the China's no 1 attractions, this book covers it all. To first time travelers and residents alike the book offers a view of the city through a fresh pair of eyes: exciting, often unpolished and definitely one of a kind. As an European, the author offers first-hand advices on how to manage the cultural shock, how to deal with unusual situations and get the best out of it.
Reviews
Serbian-born Vujicic tells the story of how she moved to the Chinese city of Hangzhou, capital of the Zhejiang province, and became enamored with its landscape, culture, and people. Now she invites readers to fall in love, too. Complete with her own gorgeous photographs capturing and celebrating the city, she lists 23 reasons why the reader ought to visit and discover the place for themselves. From reason number one, the Qiantang River and the light shows that line it, to number 23, the history of the city as one of the original centers of human civilization, she makes a powerful case for the beauty of this city and its surrounding environment. Readers will feel her grief when the loose narrative closes with her husband’s work taking the family away from Hangzhou.

Vujicic praises the people of Hangzhou as polite and helpful but avoids Orientalist tropes with anecdotes showing the humanity of those she interacts with, including their frustration at times, like the server at the restaurant who she mistakenly asks, in her “best Chinese,” for e-mail rather than soy sauce. She also relates legends and history of Hangzhou, making clear that this place isn’t simply physically lovely and abundant in great food but also is home to rich, fascinating traditions which, at times, foreigners can participate in, such as ringing the bell at the temple of wealth.

In addition to all Vujicic’s vivid descriptions of landscape and people, her food descriptions and pictures make a reader’s mouth water (and, at times, as when she describes stinky tofu, inspire distaste). From cuisine to environment to culture, it is obvious before she says it that she felt she “simply fit in China like a Lego brick.” A western reader contemplating exploring Hangzhou will find Vujicic’s brief guide to the city and its attractions invigorating and inspiring. And if Western travelers are not contemplating exploring Hangzhou, they will after reading this book.

Takeaway: One woman’s story of how she fell in love with Hangzhou—and why readers might, too.

Great for fans of: John Rydzewski’s China Diaries & Other Tales From the Road, Monique Van Dijk’s Hangzhou.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B

Formats
Hardcover Book Details
  • 06/2022
  • 9781543769715
  • 100 pages
  • $71.20
Paperback Book Details
  • 06/2022
  • 9781543769692
  • 100 pages
  • $56.32
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