Country driving
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.
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2010–2019years
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What Hacker News says
- I take it you're not familiar with Peter Hessler's other work? He's an incredible writer who learned Arabic for the gig, and some of his pieces in the New Yorker go way beyond pyramids:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/tales-trash
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/learning-to-sp...
His work about China is also great, particularly Country Driving:
- Peter Hessler is the author of (among other things) "Country Driving", whose insipid title hides a fascinating story of China's evolution viewed from the ground level.
http://www.amazon.com/Country-Driving-Chinese-Road-Trip/dp/0...
- I recently finished Peter Hessler's book Country Driving (all of his three China books are excellent, by the way). Workers wanting more OT (and more guaranteed hours in general) is a common refrain in the third of the book which deals with the emerging factory towns in Wenzhou province. Working at the smaller factories entails unsteady, unpredictable hours. Another major concern for workers is not working under too dangerous conditions, represented in the book by fake leather factories, which use chemicals with foul, dangerous fumes in their manufacturing process. Taking everything into account, I imagine a place like Foxconn must look attractive compared to most of the ready alternatives.
- Peter Hessler's "Country Driving" is a great book which second part is on topic.
- Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory - by Peter Hessler
A fascinating book about everyday life in today's China. It's actually 3 books in one: - Book 1 is an account of his driving trip along the route of the great wall from near Beijing to the Western deserts and steppes, the people he meets, and the towns he visits. - Book 2 is an account of his experiences in the village of Sancha where he bought a house and came to know a family with dreams of setting up an inn and restaurant. Eventually the village becomes a suburb of Beijing and the family gets wealthier and wealthier, at a price. - Book 3 is an account of his experiences in the town of Lishui, a small city on the way to becoming a major manufacturing center. The focus is on a couple of entrepreneurs who set up a factory that makes bra rings.
Besides the excellent writing style, what I liked about this book is that it focused on ordinary people and their hopes and dreams. It was impossible to avoid mentioning corruption of small time party leaders, but it didn't dwell on them. It was the first book about China I've read that didn't make the country seem like a dark menace or an unstoppable economic dynamo.
- The first time I read this quote is in Peter Hessler's Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory.
He use it to summarize Chinese reform and opening. You cannot get any permission from goverment, but you can try it first. If something bad happens, ask forgiveness. It maybe the core reason of Chinese speed.
