The River at the Centre of the World

£9.99

In “The River at the Centre of the World”, Simon Winchester travels up the mighty Yangtze, which splits China in two - between the wheat-growing North and the rice-growing South, with almost 500 million people living and working along its banks.

Winchester and his plucky companion Lily travel upstream all the way from the bustling cosmopolitan Shanghai to Tibet, deeper and deeper into almost inaccessible territory and the hidden recesses of early Chinese history. Their 3,900 mile journey takes them past tge magnificent Three Gorges, soon to be the site of the world’s largest hydro-electric dam, through jungles, grasslands, high plains, polluted industrial landscapes and ice-covered mountain ranges.

The author sketches in the background, describes a host of strange encounters and vividly reveals the harsh realities of today’s China. A truly enthralling account of the greatest river on earth.