DAMIAN HARPER      

Coordinating author, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei & Shandong

Born in London and educated at Winchester College, Damian abandoned a directionless career in bookselling to study Modern and Classical Chinese at London's School of Oriental and African Studies. This took him to Beijing, where he developed a deep affection for the city. Damian hightailed it to Hong Kong for a year upon graduation, before chancing upon a new life as a freelance writer. To date he has contributed to eight Lonely Planet books (including Beijing). He lives in Shanghai with his Qingdao-born wife, Dai Min, and his son, Timothy Benjamin (Jiafu), and daughter, Emma Rosalind (Jiale).

The Coordinating Author's Favourite Trip After spending a week in autumnal Beijing (p93), I'll head to nearby Chengde (p170) for a few days' exploration of the sights before travelling south to admire the pagodas and temple archi- tecture of Zhengding (p168). A trip to balmy Qingdao (p203) is always a charming diversion, where visits are enhanced by the sale of fresh Tsingtao beer by the bag (Y1.3 per jin), to accom- pany some of the best kebabs in China. Shanghai (p266) just has to be seen (but a few days is enough), and puts me within reach of the Buddhist island of Putuoshan (p322). In Shanghai, I'll rustle up a hard-sleeper ticket for the two-day train journey to Kunming (p644) in Yunnan, from where I can explore the rest of this magic province.

STEVE FALLON   

Hong Kong, Macau & Guangdong A native of Boston,

Massachusetts, Steve graduated from Georgetown Uni- versity with a Bachelor of Science in modern languages, including Chinese. After he had worked for several years for an American daily newspaper and earned a Master's degree in journalism, Steve's fascination with the 'new' Asia led him to Hong Kong, where he lived for over a dozen years, working for a variety of media, running a travel bookshop, and travelling frequently to Macau and the mainland. He has contributed to or written more than two dozen Lonely Planet titles, including Hong Kong & Macau and Best of Hong Kong.

KATJA GASKELL        

Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing & Cruising Downriver

Katja's first trip to the Chinese borderlands was 10 years ago travelling overland from Nepal to Tibet. Since then she's gained an MA in Chinese from the University of Edinburgh, and worked in Beijing as an editor and writer. She's also freelanced as a travel writer and was a contributing author of Lonely Planet's previous edition of China. When not on the road, she works in TV production and has helped produce several documentary series on China for major UK broadcasters. She currently moves between London and Beijing, and is trying to decide which one to call home.

JULIE GRUNDVIG      

The Culture, Food & Drink, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang & Fujian

Julie has been living in Northeast Asia for the past 13 years and has done a lot of travelling there. She has worked as an editor for the B.C. Asian Review and is currently Associate Editor for the international journal Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. Julie now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

CAROLYN B HELLER

Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang

& Inner Mongolia Carolyn has been fascinated with China since she first discovered egg rolls in her hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. She's an avid traveller and passion- ate food lover, who has eaten on the streets, in fine restaurants and every- where in between in more than 30 countries. She has written for publications ranging from the Boston Globe, the Zagat Survey and the Los Angeles Times, to FamilyFun magazine and Travelers' Tales Paris. After calling Boston home for 20 years, she now lives with her husband and daughters in Vancouver, British Columbia. This is her second book for Lonely Planet.

THOMAS HUHTI  

Shanxi,   Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hainan & Guangxi

Thomas hails from Wisconsin, USA, and still calls it home when not barrel- ling around the world with a backpack. A Linguistics major in university, he happily chanced upon Mandarin while fleeing the pesky grammar of Indo-European languages. A semester abroad was followed by a two-year language and research fellowship in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. He spent five years bumming the earth as a freelance writer before joining Lonely Planet. Among other books, this is his fourth tour of duty on China; he also coauthored the first edition of Southwest China.

BRADLEY MAYHEW  

Shanghai & Tibet

Bradley has been travelling to the remoter corners of China for much of the last decade. He's been to almost every corner of China's southwest and northwest, and has been the coordinating author of Lonely Planet's Tibet for the last three editions, as well as the author of Lonely Planet's Shanghai. A graduate of Oriental Studies from Oxford University, he speaks Chinese but would always rather try out his stumbling Tibetan or Uighur.

CHRISTOPHER PITT S       

Xingjiang, Gansu, Ningxia,Inner Mongolia & Qinghai

Born in the year of the Tiger, Chris' first expedition to China ended in failure when he tried to dig there from Pennsylvania at the age of six. Hardened by reality but still infinitely curious about the other side of the world, he went on to study Chinese literature in Colorado, Kunming and Tainan, offsetting his years abroad by working in a Chinese bookstore in San Francisco and as an editor in Berkeley. A chance meeting in a Taiwanese elevator wound up letting him off in Paris, where he currently lives with his wife Perrine.

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS

Korina Miller lived the first 18 years of her life on Vancouver Island. Since then she hasn't stayed in any one place for very long. Along the way she picked up a degree in Communications and an MA in Migration Studies. Her first venture into China was in 1997, when she landed a job researching cooperatives and ecotourism in Shanghai and Lijiang. Her travels in China have since taken her from the Manchurian border in the north to the Tibetan Plateau in the southwest. She is coauthor of Lonely Planet's Southwest China and author of Best of Beijing. For this guide, Korina wrote the History and Environment chapters.

Dr Trish Batchelor wrote the Health chapter. She is a general practitioner and travel medicine specialist who works at the Ciwec Clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal. She is also a medical advisor to the Travel Doctor New Zealand clinics. Trish teaches travel medicine through the University of Otago, and is interested in underwater and high-altitude medicine, and in the impact of tourism on host countries. She has travelled extensively through Southeast and east Asia, and particularly loves high-altitude trekking in the Himalayas.