Known for years as the sleeping giant of tourism, China has now awakened with a roar, attracting 120 million inbound tourists each year (including two and a half million Americans), and accounting for increasing sales of guidebooks to its three major attractions: Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. Our author of this 288-page guide to those three primary cities--Graham Bond--has lived in China for many years, is currently pursuing a doctorate in Chinese history, but continues to keep his touristic information up-to-date and rewarding through constant travels there. He is already the author of Frommer's Shanghai, a previously-published guidebook, and now cements his reputation as the nation's foremost authority on visits to China by American and other western travelers. The book is profusely illustrated with maps, and provides every detailed assistance on the mechanics of living in and touring China. Graham Bond has spent more than a decade writing about China. He lived in mainland China for five years, working on the editorial desks of Shanghai-based travel magazine Asia and Away and Beijing’s China Daily, and contributing to a number of international publications, including The Times, the South China Morning Post and The Australian . Graham currently lives in Hampshire, England, where he has recently completed a doctorate in Chinese communications. He is the author of several guidebooks, including Frommer's Day by Day guides to Shanghai and Hong Kong. He resides in Overton, Hampshire in the UK.