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Justin Hempson-Jones is writing On Heaven’s Lake, 
a book about the year he spent recently in China.
As a piece of travel writing this is beautifully evocative, full of texture, taste and surprise. It is peopled with a remarkable cast of characters, engaged in the most extraordinary activities. It takes us from the hellish white noise and frantic motion of the city to the primal stillness and silence of the Yellow Mountain, and back again. It shows us the optimism, energy and sheer belief of the people, while acknowledging their fear and acquiescence. It does what the best travel writing always does.
But it offers much more than that. As an analysis and explanation of the latest phase of the Chinese Experiment it works its way into the minds and motivations of a population and a society which is roundly beating the economic giants of the West at their own game – but on its own terms. No other book on China has managed to get to the core of this enigma: as the West waited for China to adopt its ways and join the international economic club, China found its own way, coupling the co-operative creeds of 1950s Communism to an economic train of unstoppable communal enterprise. The vision is as exhilarating as it is disturbing. This is an extremely timely, important and original addition to the sub-genre of recent non-fiction concerned with China, and an enthralling read, beautifully realised.
Justin Hempson-Jones is a former China scholar and has published several articles on Chinese politics and international relations. He currently works in an intelligence unit for the Metropolitan Police.
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