I found this book quite good for general info about places to visit in Beijing. Beijing a little over 1/2 inch thick, it is quite thin. It primarily lists the 10 main sites to visit in Beijing. For each spot it lists quite a bit of info, history, pictures, operating hours, etc. It also lists what is nearby to visit each of the 10 sites, whether it be shopping centers or resturaunts.

In addition to the 10 major scenic sites, it also has a section called 'excursions' for detailing where to go outside of Beijing for nearby excursions, such as, the great wall, ming tombs, chengde, etc. It also has sections for resturaunts, nightlife, shopping, leisure activities, history, general everyday use info, getting around etc.

Overall, it is a good bare-bones book for use when going to Beijing. It is not as thorough as other guidebooks for example, Fodors china. But considering the small size of the book, it obviously can't go into tremendous detail about such a large and exciting city!