Calvin Profs Author China Survival Guide

March 24, 2008 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Two Calvin professors have written an unconventional travel guide to
China, just in time for the games of the XXIX Olympiad, to be held August 8-24,
2008, in Beijing.

Full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/china-survival-guide.html

Two Calvin College professors of Asian languages have written an
unconventional travel guide to China.

Larry Herzberg, who teaches both Chinese and Japanese at Calvin, and his wife
Qin, who teaches Chinese, have authored China Survival Guide (Stone Bridge
Press, $9.95) a pocket-sized book that contains no directions to the Great
Wall, but plenty of advice about toilet paper (Take your own) and black
taxicabs (Never take them).

"It occurred to us that there are plenty of guidebooks out there that tell you
where to stay and what to eat," said Larry Herzberg, "but none that tell you
about the nitty gritty problems that you encounter in China as a traveler every
day—how to handle toilets in a culture quite different from our own, how to
haggle over prices when you make a purchase, how to obtain clean drinking water
and how to cross the street without getting killed."

China attracts some 100 million tourists annually, a number that is apt to
increase in 2008 with a throng of world travelers likely to make the Beijing
Olympics a destination this summer.

"We didn't write the book with the Olympics in mind," Larry Herzberg said of
the games which will be held August 8–24, "but we realized that the timing
was perfect in terms of helping the largest number of people who would be
traveling there."

As pioneers of Calvin's Chinese language study program (the only such program
at a Christian college that offers four continuous years of language study in
both Chinese and Japanese), the Herzbergs themselves have taken numerous trips
to China, many times with students in tow.

Indeed, the college's many China connections served as an inspiration to write
the book, he claimed. Currently Calvin maintains a semester program in Beijing,
Calvin philosophy professors regularly teach in China and scholars from that
country regularly visit the Calvin campus.

Herzberg hinted at another Calvin connection that has a financial incentive:
The campus store is carrying China Survival Guide for $8.50, a dollar and
forty-five cents off the retail price.

"It's priced to sell," he said.

Contact Larry Herzberg at 616-526-6363 or herz@calvin.edu

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Received on Mon Mar 24 09:12:40 2008