This was a fascinating look at a region of the world I've long been interested in! While my interest has typically fallen on the Russian side of the river, I found the Chinese equally insightful and rich in history, place, time, you name it.

I'd not read anything by Thubron before, so finding he's a top-rated travel writer was a bit of a (good!) surprise; I can certainly see why here. He does an excellent job at recounting details and stories of his experiences, bringing them to vivid life in my mind's eye.

At times the level of detail was almost too much for me, but it was ultimately worthwhile to push through and continue. Even the casually interested will find their interest piqued.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

An excellent book! Thubron explores a part of the world I previously knew little about, but had always wanted to gain more knowledge of. His descriptions of the people and places of Mongolia, Siberia, and Northern China open up a part of the world that has long been hidden from much of the West. I would highly recommend to anyone who wishes to learn more about this region of the globe.

In his latest, Thubron traces the route of the Amur River which lies on the border between Russia and China, and in some places, retraces his footsteps of 20 years before. He explores the tensions between China and Russia over this area from the very beginning to the present day. This book excels with the sometimes humorous and always thought-provoking interactions between Thurbron and the people he meets along the way.

The Amur River: Between Russian and China: by Colin Thubron
There are many books that tell stories of a traveler going from someplace to another. In some cases, the main part of the story is the epic adventure of reaching the finishing point with all the hardships that must be overcome. In other travel books the journey is smooth and perhaps the writer is detailing churches and wonderful meals.
Then you have writers like Mr. Thubron who is now 82 years old following the Amur River from its source to the Pacific Ocean. The Amur for over 1300 miles forms the border between Russia/Siberia and China/Mongolia. Part of this land he has been to before though over 20 to 30 years before in; Behind the Wall- A Journey through China (1987), The Lost Heart of Asia (1994 and, In Siberia (1999). He tells about people and places now changed with time. And I suppose he lets slip so has he changed. What I found interesting is the pressure that exists across the river border between China and Russia. On one side there are 2 million Russians in three provinces while on the Chinese side there are 110 million people.
As I read this book, I also pulled from the shelf the three books I mentioned above. None of those books along with The Amur River have any photographs so I found myself using google to get a physical image of these strange, unfamiliar places.
What Thubron does well is describe and meet people along the way. Not fluent but able to stumble in Chinese and Russian is a big help. These are in many cases people who live 1000’s of miles from metropolitan cities and only in some cases yearn for seeing the outside world. Not everyone is looking to expand their world. I found this quite interesting in its honesty.
I highly recommend this book to those who have read Thubron’s previous work.

This was another amazing book by Colin Thubron. Some places, like the path of the Amur River, remain remote and mysterious even in this age of Instagram explorers. As such, it's a thrilling adventure to armchair travel through this unknown land with a veteran travel writer like Thubron. Five very enthusiastic stars and highly recommended.

I'm sorry to say this book simply did not engage me at all, and in the end I didn't finish reading it. The stilted language and ruminative, pedantic style made my eyelids droop every time I picked it up. I wanted to enjoy it, but just couldn't., I'm not posting this review online, as I don't want to deter other readers who may enjoy the book more than I did.

A very interesting read about traveling along the Amur River which flows along Russia and China. The author travels by different methods and talks to native people on the way. There is a focus on the area's history as well stories from the people he travels with. The author's prose sometimes can get in the way, as I found myself having to re-read sentences slowly to try to understand what exactly he was trying to say. Overall, if you like travel books that paint a very descriptive picture, then I would recommend this.

In “The Amur River,” travel writer Colin Thubron records his journey following the world’s tenth-largest river, starting from its origins in one of its tributaries in northeastern Mongolia and taken until its conclusion in the Sea of Okhotsk. Along the way, he is assisted by a large and eclectic cast of guides as he travels on a combination of horse, cab, bus, and boat all the way to the Pacific.

As someone who spent two years in northeastern China living in a city built around one of the Amur’s tributaries, I still enjoy learning all that I can about the region that I once called home, and so I eagerly dived right in. What I encountered was a world formerly inhabited by a range of indigenous peoples, but in the last few hundred years has been a meeting point of far eastern Russia and northeastern China, shaped in particular over the past two centuries by a range of traumas including gulags and convict settlements, forced Russification of its native population, massacres, and an array of wars. And in the present day, it has become a land still filled with tensions. It is a harsh land filled with near-virginal wilds, yet also a land that is recklessly plundered and poached. It’s a land where the governments of the opposing nations have declared friendship from their capitals thousands of miles away, while distrust festers along the river’s winding, fortified borders. It’s a place where there are dead and dying towns and villages aplenty, and the cities that thrive both prosper yet feel isolated. And it’s a land that has seemingly long-held promise due to its resources and location, but such promise never seems to be fully realized. And despite these modern-day realities, life along both sides continues on in the hardy women and men that the author meets along his way.

All of this from the Amur region’s past and present were opened to me, and much more in a fascinating reading experience that made me feel as if I were one of Thubron’s travel companions. If you too find yourself unfamiliar with this corner of the world and would like to encounter more, then this is not a trip to be missed, for it’s travel writing at some of its very best.