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ISBN: 978-988-19002-0-3
Paperback, 356 pages
with colour photo section
Size: 14 x 21 cm
Published: October 2011

Price: HK$128 / US$16.95

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China – what’s not to love?

Join longtime Hong Kong resident and Cantonese fundamentalist Cecilie Gamst Berg as she ploughs through the non-stop surreal-fest that is today’s China, stopping occasionally to ruminate about the travails of trying to make Cantonese a world language, and how the Chinese have invented a new English: Manglish.

In this book you’ll find answers to everything you wanted to know about China, such as:

• What does “the slippery are very crafty” really mean?

• What’s the etiquette for hitch-hiking in really small cars?

• What’s the best way to gatecrash a Ketamine party?

• Indeed, what is modern party etiquette in China? And:

• How do you win a fist-fight with a hotel security guard?

Travelling by horse, train and sleeper bus from the deserts of Xinjiang, across the mountains of Tibet and Sichuan to the water buffalo fields of Hong Kong, Cecilie shows you how China is not only the most happening place on Earth, but also the most fun.

Look inside this book
Click on this link to view sample pages from Don't Joke on the Stairs. You will need a pdf reader to view this excerpt. Smile Comes Before a Fall

Watch Cecilie's 13-minute movie about Don't Joke on the Stairs!

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MEDIA ATTENTION

"I cannot remember the last time I read such an insightful, yet hilarious, assessment of modern China ... I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in China and Hong Kong and how, despite their problems, they remain fascinating to both the traveller and the resident." – The Culture Vulture

"Within a few pages, readers begin to experience a surprising wish to meet the author. She conveys such a vibrant joie de vivre, making it easy to smile and adopt the same zestful attitude. She must be fun to know, a talkative live-wire. Certainly, she gives an impression of having written this enjoyable book with ease – by starting to chat and not stopping until the end. ... Readers share the sights, sounds, tastes and humor of the author's travels without facing the bad weather, hassles and long train rides. That's worth the price of a book. Don't Joke on the Stairs isn't the most comprehensive book ever written about China. It's not the best-researched, the most insightful or the most enlightening. But it may be the most fun to read." - Cairns Media Magazine

"New Travel Book a Wild Ride Through China" - City Weekend

"What I loved most about this book was Gamst Berg’s side-splitting humor. It’s obvious she loves China, but she doesn’t apologize for the surreal (as she describes it) happenings in the PRC. I often found myself either thinking, Amen, sister, or laughing too hard to even think. ... I like how Gamst Berg mixes history, social issues (prostitution, polygamy, homosexuality, and other illegal activities popular in China), and political ones (Xinjiang and Tibet, to name a couple) with her train travels throughout the country." - Susan Blumberg-Kason

Listen to Cecilie talking about her book on Radio 3's Teen Time