Great. For the traveller there is more than enough to keep you and the locals you meet entertained. One drawback is the writing is a little small so sometimes difficult to read the Chinese characters, not just for locals, but for me when I was trying to copy from the book. One other slight criticism I have is that the Lonely Planet decided to use their own version of phonetically writing the chinese rather than using the official "Pinyin" - this just made things more complicated for me rather than being helpful - why not just explain that "q" should be pronounced "ch" etc.? ( )

Ah, my closest companion in these days abroad. (Except for that one jaunt to Thailand.) This is just a nice, well organized phrasebook. It lists the translation in Chinese characters and phonetic English, so when you mangle the words you can always point to it in the book. My only real complaint is that it's geared toward the traveler, not the resident. So while there's plenty of material for handling a trip to the restaurant, it's a bit lacking for a trip to the store to buy those homeowner's necessities like a screwdriver. Still, I've got more than my money's worth these past few months, so I shouldn't complain.
--J. ( )