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)

A wonderful look at what's been happening in China

I really enjoyed listening to this book. Though he is not Chinese, Peter Hessler spent several years in China and learned enough of the language to get around on his own and become friends with ordinary Chinese people. He rented a house in a small village north of Beijing close to the Great Wall and got to know one family really well. He learned about their elementary school, the health care system at the time, relations between married couples with children. He described how a husband and wife each pursued paths in business and local political leadership, and how some of them cooperate in traditional agricultural practices. He described how a man he knew mainly as an entrepreneur demonstrated traditional skills when joining other villagers in the fall walnut harvest. He made a special effort to understand what life was like for certain individuals in factory boom towns, and remote Western villages. He rented a car and drove thousands of miles to see what the country was like. I was impressed with how big and varied the country is and how Chinese people follow some of their own laws and rules only partially. The description of what the government tried to do to encourage economic opportunity was not unlike ours in some ways. Some things were changing rapidly when he was there. For example, the number of cars and drivers was increasing. It is an in depth look you can't get by just going there and visiting tourist sites.

Some reviewers have said the narrator did not pronounce the Chinese language properly. That didn't bother me because I don't speak Mandarin. However I found myself wanting to understand the geographical locations better by researching them on the internet. I bought a hard copy of the book so I could know how the place names are spelled, but there are many different ways to spell the same Chinese word using our script. A couple of times it was hard to tell who was speaking in dialogue, but overall it is a wonderful book and I will read his others.

Another masterful piece!!

Please don't pass up this book because of the narrator! I'm a HUGE Peter Hessler fan! The only issue with this audiobook is the narration. I wish the narrator had done more work with the pronunciations of the locales and names of the individuals in the book, as I grew up in China and am fluent in Chinese. I had to Google Map the locations referenced in the book, yet I still had trouble figuring out where these counties and towns were. My American-born teens listened with me in the car, giggled at the pronunciations, and said the narrator sounded worse than them when they spoke Chinese.

Great Book! It Changed Me

First, I am staunchly anti Communist China. I don't like doing business China. I don't like supporting a military that will one day dominate us. I refuse to help a Chinese business in my work as a business consultant and will retire long before the day that will be necessary to make a living.

Get it? I do not like China.

But, I liked this book so much, it changed me.

The book softened me on my feelings about the people of China who want and care about many of the same things we do---we are just competing for limited resources.

I'm still very anti China but I have a lot more empathy for the people as a result of this book.

Of all the books about modern China, this one gives a totally different look than any of the others. It's not political. It's just a really nice look at what life is like in China.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes culture and wants to understand the world.

Great book.

it might even change you!

Chris Reich, TeachU

Another Fabulous Book by Peter Hessler

Peter Hessler’s writing is fantastic. This was another incredibly interesting and easy listen. His books are personal and humanistic, while educating the listener, transporting you across time and the Pacific Ocean. I loved this book so so much with journey to three different areas of China, all connected with driving. I am so grateful to have found this author and these books!

Good story

The narrator was fantastic! The story was very interesting but got a little long.
I am glad for my new insights into the Chinese culture.

Outstanding

Peter Hessler provides a fascinating window into the experiences, thoughts and motivations of ordinary people in China. He has spent many years in China and speaks fluent Mandarin--so he is able to get to know people and interact in people's lives in a way that goes far beyond what is typically found in "travel" literature.

Great writing and narrative

This is such a well written book with vivid stories through personal experience. The writer covers many aspects of China, from the village to the factory. As a Chinese, I learn a lot from this book about my own country.

The narrative is great and the narrator has a great voice as well as great pronunciation of Chinese. I really enjoyed this book.

Great book! Need More!

Just like the other two, a book that will take you on a journey through China. Great read! We need more Peter! MORE!

Excellent book and narration

This is a well-written, very entertaining book about how everyday people in China are moving from a rural economy to a modern one. It's amazing to me how Hessler was able to gain the confidence of so many people in order to learn how they really feel about the things going on around them. We learn some of the cultural differences between us and people in China, but I came away thinking that we're not really that different. I give this audiobook four stars and would note to potential buyers that the mediocre overall rating so far owes much to the 1-star rating of the previous reviewer who supposedly liked the book but not the narrator. Hit the sample button to see if you like the narration. I thought the reader was very good at voice characterization, and there are a lot of different voices to perform here - from very young children to older men and women.

China revealed

i really enjoyed the insight into many aspects of the recent Chinese culture and life of random people.