Country Driving

A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory

By: Peter Hessler

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

From the best-selling author of Oracle Bones and River Town comes the final book in his award-winning trilogy, on the human side of the economic revolution in China.

In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver's license. For the next seven years, he traveled the country, tracking how the automobile and improved roads were transforming China. Hessler writes movingly of the average people - farmers, migrant workers, entrepreneurs - who have reshaped the nation during one of the most critical periods in its modern history.

Country Driving begins with Hessler's 7,000-mile trip across northern China, following the Great Wall, from the East China Sea to the Tibetan plateau. He investigates a historically important rural region being abandoned, as young people migrate to jobs in the southeast.

Next, Hessler spends six years in Sancha, a small farming village in the mountains north of Beijing, which changes dramatically after the local road is paved and the capital's auto boom brings new tourism.

Finally, he turns his attention to urban China, researching development over a period of more than two years in Lishui, a small southeastern city where officials hope that a new government-built expressway will transform a farm region into a major industrial center.

Peter Hessler, whom The Wall Street Journal calls "one of the Western world's most thoughtful writers on modern China", deftly illuminates the vast, shifting landscape of a traditionally rural nation that, having once built walls against foreigners, is now building roads and factory towns that look to the outside world.

©2010 Peter Hessler (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The best yet from Peter Hessler, whose two earlier books, River Town and Oracle Bones, were exemplary forays into the genre. . . . Told with his characteristic blend of empathy, insight, and self-deprecating humor." ( Time)

"[A]n utterly enjoyable guide, with a humane and empathetic eye for the ambitions, the failures, and the comedy of a country in which everybody, it seems, is on the move, and no one is quite sure of the rules." (Amazon.com review)

"Peter Hessler is a fine tour guide for the new China, a writer who is capable of tossing aside the country’s (deplorable) maps and admitting: 'In China, it’s not such a terrible thing to be lost, because nobody else knows exactly where they’re going, either.'....It’s not merely that Mr. Hessler convinces us that the Chinese, being new to driving, are simply awful at it. He makes the additional, and delightful, case that perhaps no other people 'take such joy in driving badly.'" ( The New York Times)

Excellent stories

Truthful , interesting and fascinating stories about people's life & their work in the changing china in 2005-2007 that seemed to be such a long time ago story

Just Got Back From China - This Book Was Right On!

I read Country Driving just weeks before going to China recently and I am so glad that I did. The author, Peter Hessler, does an excellent job in describing China, especially "off the beaten path".

The book helped me to have an "open mind" and "put down some of my own stereotypes" about China, and go there to just enjoy the experience and take it all in.

Thanks Peter Hessler for writing such a great book and helping me to thoroughly enjoy the great land and people of China!

Superb story of old to new China.

Hessler has the guts to grovel with poor peasants to get their lives right....he makes their story his own breathing poison fumes smoking their cheap cigs and eating their offal in their mud and paper shacks with them.

A fascinating journey

I admit that I tend to overuse "fascinating" in my book reviews, but this is one case where it's warranted. For anyone interested in modern China, Hessler's account of the seven years he spent in the country between 2001 and 2008 is a pleasure to read, providing a real sense of connection between the past and today. From his account of driving along the Great Wall in a rental car, to his experiences living with a rural Chinese family, to his explorations of the life of a new factory town and its inhabitants, I think it's hard for Americans to get a better street-level overview of a nation in transition. Hessler does a fine job of capturing all the little quirks of daily life that outsiders might miss, and touching on the many differences, large and subtle, between Chinese and Western culture. He writes fairly objectively, but doesn't keep himself (and his sense of humor) out of the narrative. The last third of the book, which covers the life and times of a brassiere ring factory in a boom town, is especially fascinating, as it echoes the story of many parts of the United States circa 1900, but in an entirely 21st century, Chinese way.

I'm glad I picked this one up at an Audible sale. Some reviews have complained about the narrator's pronunciation of Chinese names, but I don't speak the language, so that aspect went straight over my head.

I'll never look at my bras in the same way again

Peter Hessler's a great storyteller and he draws you into his experiences with intelligence, respect, charm and good humor.

He also gave me an understanding and appreciation of the people who made the stuff in my life that came from exactly the sort of places he describes so well. I've gained a whole new perspective about things I always took for granted (bra rings being just one example!)

I didn't expect to enjoy this book so much, but found myself thoroughly absorbed in it and sad when this journey to China ended.

Good book

Would be nice if they hired a narrator who knew how to pronounce Chinese words

Country Driving

Hessler's book is full of fascinating information about China today and its history. I would give the audiobook five stars if I liked Peter Berkrot's reading, but I don't. He has a strange inflection that is a sort of throwback to radio announcers' voices before 1960, and his interpretation of a Chinese person speaking English is downright embarrassing. Hessler's writing of dialogue is, of course, translation of conversations he had that were carried out in Chinese, for the most part. Why Berkrot feels he has to read those parts in an ersatz Chinese accent is beyond me. I listened to the whole thing and really enjoyed the text, but the reading had me gritting my teeth far too much of the time.

Unique and Excellent

Peter Hessler combines lucid and candid writing with the warmth and dedication of someone who wants to tell a human story based on his own contacts and research.
He has spent much time (measured in years) in gathering the material for this book and has based it on his own first-hand experiences in China.

He is a keen observer of human nature and the environment and conditions that characterize a China undergoing a remarkable economic transformation. There is much to learn and to enjoy from this book. I recommend it highly.

Author clearly loves China and you will too

Peter Hessler weaves a perfect tale of the aspirations of ordinary Chinese in a sympathetic way. In many ways, China's people have not changed from Pearl Buck's rural peasants of a century ago in "The Good Earth". The author gives a seamless sequel from the dynasties to today's modern China. The book gives countless insights into how the world's most-populated nation operates.

The reader finds himself drawn to the numerous personal stories of how rural China is changing. While American politicians may attempt to scare their countryman by the rise of China, you find after reading it yourself less fearful of China's ascent on the world stage. The author clearly loves the rural Chinese people and you will too after listening to this excellent book.

An improvement from Oracle Bones

What made the experience of listening to Country Driving the most enjoyable?

The first section of the book, where Hessler is describing getting his driving license (including hilarious test questions) and driving along the Great Wall is the best part of the book. It contains lots of interesting and funny stories and has the best humour in the book.

What other book might you compare Country Driving to and why?

This book is a bit more in the style of Hessler's first book River Town and contains more of the surprise about China than the previous book, Oracle Bones, which I didn't enjoy as much.

What aspect of Peter Berkrot’s performance would you have changed?

Although Berkot's the pronounciation of Chinese and the silly voices he sometimes tends to use for dialogue are less annoying than in Oracle Bones it's still not the best performance for a China related book.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It's 16 hours long ... I have other things to do.

Any additional comments?

I read River Town when I was in China and liked it so much I immediately purchased Hessler's other two books, Oracle Bones and Country Driving. When I was travelling through China I actually started reading Country Driving but I never got round finishing it. More recently I bought a few audio books and have been listening to the two books in recent weeks.

I was quite disappointed by Oracle Bones, which I found to be too drawn out, often boring and had Hessler writing to much as a know-it-all. In cCuntry Driving he regained some of his balance and I'm happy to say it's more like River Town than Oracle Bones. The book consists of three parts. The first part deals with Hessler getting his driving license (including samples of the hilarious test questions) and driving along the Great Wall. I consider this the best part of the book with many funny stories and good humour and some information about Chinese regions you don't often come across.
I had expected the whole book to be like a travelogue, not unlike Rob Gifford's more serious China Road, but this (unfortunately) did not prove to be the case. The second and third part of the book find Hessler grounded in the small village of Sancha, north of Beijing, and a facotry for bra rings in Zhejiang. As such, the title of the book is a bit misleading.

The second part of the book, about the village on Sancha is my least favourite. The story mostly deals with one family and thereby the book shifts from the wide perspective of a roadtrip in the first part to the microcosm of a Chinese rural family. That's all fine but it does so in too much detail and I found myself getting impatient with the continuous story about a handful of people. I also found Hessler's writing to be walking a thin line between humorous admirating and derision at times.

The third part, about the Zhejiang factory, is more interesting again. Besides the workings of a factory in all it's facets - including having to deal with workers, government officials and competition - it also gives a glimpse of what China's economic development was like after the turn of the century. This makes for more interesting reading than the life of one rural family as far as I'm concerned.

All in all this is a step back in the right direction for Hessler after the disappointing Oracle Bones.

A note on the audio book: like Oracle Bones this audio book is narrated by Peter Berkrot, who I didn't like much in Oracle Bones because of his dreadful pronounciation of Chinese and silly voices whenever he read out dialogue by a Chinese person. Berkrot has improved is pronounciation somewhat for this book and his silly voices are a bit less exreme, though not fully absent in his rendition of Country Driving.