Dubbed “a wonderful portrait of contemporary China” (Time Magazine), Country Driving is Peter Hessler’s account of his road trips through China over the past decade.
Humorous, touching and perceptive, Hessler rewards his readers with visions of a China rarely glimpsed by outsiders, from the fortified towns along the Great Wall in the north to near-inaccessible hilltop villages and the entrepreneurial cities of the south-east. His story centres upon a nation modernising at a great pace and the ordinary citizens caught up in the sea of change.
The New York Times bestselling author of Oracle Bones and River Town, Hessler was the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker and a contributor to National Geographic.

Excerpt:
"Sitting behind the wheel woke me up. That was happening everywhere: in Beijing alone, almost a thousand new drivers registered on average every day, the pioneers of a national auto boom. Most of them came from the growing middle class, for whom a car represented mobility, prosperity, modernity. For me, it meant adventure." – Extract from Country Driving.