With eloquence and wit Peter Hessler takes us on the road less travelled, showing us a China rarely glimpsed by outsiders.

Hessler, Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker and contributor to National Geographic, tells the story of his travels through China over the past decade. From the fortified towns along the Great Wall in the north, to near-inaccessible hilltop towns and the entrepreneurial cities of the south-east, he explores the rapidly changing landscape.

This is the story of a nation modernising at great pace, where factory start-ups are a dime a dozen, and how the ordinary Chinese people are caught up in that modernisation.

'I learned far more about China overnight from Peter Hessler's wonderful book-and far more enjoyably-than from my ten years of journeys there. Hessler's not just a boon companion through the byways of the far north, a decade of village life and China's raw provincial commercialism; he bares the country's heart and soul with grace, humour and rare modesty.' Robert Macklin, author of Morrison of China