| Title | : | Black Dragon River: A Journey Down the Amur River at the Borderlands of Empires |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1594203679 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781594203671 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 |
| Publication | : | First published November 10, 2015 |
One of Asia’s mightiest rivers, the Amur is also the most elusive. The terrain it crosses is legendarily difficult to traverse. Near the river’s source, Ziegler travels on horseback from the Mongolian steppe into the taiga, and later he is forced by the river’s impassability to take the Trans-Siberian Railway through the four-hundred-mile valley of water meadows inland. As he voyages deeper into the Amur wilderness, Ziegler also journeys into the history of the peoples and cultures the river’s path has transformed.
The known history of the river begins with Genghis Khan and the rise of the Mongolian empire a millennium ago, and the story of the region has been one of aggression and conquest ever since. The modern history of the river is the story of Russia's push across the Eurasian landmass to China. For China, the Amur is a symbol of national humiliation and Western imperial land seizure; to Russia it is a symbol of national regeneration, its New World dreams and eastern prospects. The quest to take the Amur was to be Russia’s route to greatness, replacing an oppressive European identity with a vibrant one that faced the Pacific. Russia launched a grab in 1854 and took from China a chunk of territory equal in size nearly to France and Germany combined. Later, the region was the site for atrocities meted out on the Russian far east in the twentieth century during the Russian civil war and under Stalin.
The long shared history on the Amur has conditioned the way China and Russia behave toward each other—and toward the outside world. To understand Putin’s imperial dreams, we must comprehend Russia’s relationship to its far east and how it still shapes the Russian mind. Not only is the Amur a key to Putinism, its history is also embedded in an ongoing clash of empires with the West.
Black Dragon River: A Journey Down the Amur River at the Borderlands of Empires Reviews
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We're going to need a bigger map. That was my thought after I had read the first few chapters. Not that the map provided in the Kindle edition isn't useful, but I like to read these types of travel books with a map sitting on my lap next to the book, a map that I can mark up and make comments on as I read.
The Amur River (Sahaliyan Ula or Black River, as the Manchus called it; Heilongjiang or Black Dragon River as the Chinese call it) is the world's ninth longest river — 2,826 miles if measured from its head waters before the Shilka and Argun tributaries meet. Unlike the great rivers of Russia, which run from south to north, the Amur runs from west to east. It originates in Mongolia and cuts across both Russia and China.
A cursory glance at a map can be misleading. The river is not a natural transportation route across the Siberian Far East. Look at it in relation to Vladivostok, Russia's ice-free port. Not only does it lie to the north but two loops swing very far north. The Amur watershed is a work in progress with winter ice cutting new channels and fast-flowing meltwater spilling into mud flats and virtual ponds far into spring. Moreover, the river marks a historically contested boundary between Russia and China.
The title of this book is a bit misleading as well. The author has meticulously researched the history of the region. His travels take him through Onon, north to Chita, west to Irkutsk at the southern tip of Lake Baikal, east to Nerchinsk (about 132 miles east of Chita, as the crow flies), Albazino (320 miles northeast of Nerchinsk), Blagoveshchensk (261 miles southeast of Albazino), Khabarovsk (361 miles southeast of Blagoveshchensk), and finally Nikolaevsk (or Nikolayevskna-Amura, 406 miles northeast of Khabarovsk). (I used
https://www.distancefromto.net/ for these distances). The journey is much longer if the course of the Amur is actually followed. Each location once played a significant role in Russian history, only to undergo decline.
Liberated from this geographical constraint, the primary historical events in this book cover the rise and dissolution of the Mongol Empire; the origins and complex legacy of the Cossacks, which coincided with the destruction of native nomadic tribal populations; and centuries of relations with the Chinese which have been at times both antagonistic and symbiotic. Paranoia and pragmatism. That is the paradoxical “Russian soul” viewed through history. In particular, Ziegler points to the Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 which despite Russia's long, if selective, memory of past grievances, is the foundation of a different attitude toward China than toward Europe and America. Ziegler contemplates the region's history with a disquieting conclusion: “Looking back, I do not think I imagined to find in such empty country the degrees of violence and cruelty I encountered in the history of the early Russians moving east. I wondered whether this original sin set the tone for the better known atrocities meted out on the Russian Far East in the twentieth century, notably during the Russian civil war and under Stalin.” (p.10)
Ziegler finds areas of unspoiled natural habitat, and these were the parts that interested me the most. A diverse ecosystem of tundra, taiga, steppe and wetland has been preserved from development by border tensions between China and Russia. Ziegler expresses a lyrical appreciation of this terrain. As his party approaches the Onon River he observes: “The headwaters of Siberian rivers are vast upland expanses of blanket bog, hung over with mist, with no beginning, middle, or end.” (p.43) He describes Dauria (part of the Landscapes of Dauria, a UNESCO Heritage Site), where six species of crane nest. Even as he writes about this, ominous forebodings of climate change are present. The Torey Lakes where waterfowl nest, have begun to vanish. Finally, near the end of his journey, as Ziegler approaches Nikolaevsk (Nikolaevskna-Amura): “The Amur was not one stream here but a filigree of rills, runs, chutes, spirals, and meanders. The waters had shunted whole sandbanks about, and spilled over into lagoons and marshlands, leaving behind placid oxbow lakes where once the main force of the river had run.” (p.314)
This is a book dense with historical minutiae. Those interested in Russian history will appreciate it much more than I did. However, being an avid armchair traveler, I did enjoy Ziegler's insights and descriptions. He also had an interesting brush with the law. Having agreed to purchase a hand-made pocket knife he discovers the knife in question is one crafted at the Nerchinsk Prison. Only a hundred rubles ($5.00). The money is flung over the prison wall, but the knife is intercepted and Ziegler finds himself under arrest. It's an interesting anecdote that concludes with the author hastily departing town.
This was an interesting read, but also a long one. -
Very nice book about the history and geography of amur river region, and the history of east of Russia, the world of mongol(ia too), the north of china, the homelands of lots of indian tribes. Lots of history, but mostly Russian and ussr. This is a history book first and foremost, not travel book, though it is that too, but not travel writing like tayler’s super cool (err, frigid) book
River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia's Waterway of Exile, Death, and Destiny and not a history like, but still very similar to this rr history
To the Edge of the World: The Story of the Trans-Siberian Express, the World’s Greatest Railroad and this new novel pairs really well with ziegler’s history of ussr east
The Big Green Tent
But enough of what it is, and is not…here is short excerpt as example of writer’s style and tone, he is near Blagoveshchensk and speaking how history and now. page 272-273
“A century ago, Chinese works outnumbered Chinese farmers. It is the same today. It used to stick in the craw of Russian imperialists that their newly seized Far Eastern lands depended upon Chinese and to a lesser extent Korean labor to secure and develop them. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese contract workers were brought in to mine, fish , and log. In the Far East the Chinese built the railways, the roads, the military garrisons. They made bricks and lime, and they cut stone. They laid out city streets and threw up municipal buildings. They brewed beer, canned salmon, and stuffed sausages. Chinese workers were well organized and able to put up with hardship. Only for the relatively careful work of plastering, joinery, and oven building were Russians preferred over Chinese in the Russian Far East.
Today, Chinese contract workers are in demand again in gold mines and in the lumberyards stripping out the taiga: no days off, ascetic living conditions, and bound, as a century ago, to a headman with opportunities for exploitation. Some things have changed. There are no massacres of Chinese. Not any longer, is there the frequent mimicking of scragging of Chinese in the street that caused one sardonic editorialist a century ago to say that “beating the manza [the pejorative term for a Chinese] has become a custom with us. Only the lazy don’t indulge in it.” Still, the interactions with Chinese are kept to a minimum in the Russian Far East and rarely are they friendly. In the face of Russian nationalism, the Chinese workers lie low. To Russian paranoia, invisibility remains proof of dastardliness.”
there is one nice map, no pictures whatsoever, super annotated suggested reading, bibliography , and index. -
Dominic Ziegler's Black Dragon River: A Journey Down the Amur River Between Russia and China is uneven. It contains intriguing chapters on his travels down the Amur River from its source in Mongolia to its outlet on the Gulf of Tartary, but these glimpses are interspersed with superficial history lessons on the Russian presence in eastern Siberia. Another shortcoming is the single ridiculously-inadequate small scale map of the region. As a travel book it succeeds, but as history it's lacking. I'll give it a weak Three Stars.
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3.5
Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.
One my favorite books when I was a child was Folktales of the Amur. It was one those children’s books that could work as a coffee table book. Nicely illustrated and written. I loved that book. I still love that book. When I re-read it, it always holds its magic. Hence the reason why I read Black Dragon River by Dominic Ziegler.
The Amur is a river in the Russian east. It forms the boundary or border between Russian and China. It’s linked with Siberia. It goes into Mongolia. The name Amur is linked with tigers and leopards. That tiger that Putin released last year, it swam across the Amur River into China, causing a bit of a diplomatic crisis.
Personally, I prefer the tale of Zolushka (Cinderella) who lost part of her tail due to frostbite.
Anyway. Tigers and Leopards. What’s not to love? (Well, there that story in the brilliant, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Valliant; an understandably angry tiger, but still scary)
Ziegler’s book doesn’t really focus on the wildlife, which was a little disappointing. It does, however, focus on the history and people of the Amur River area. This means you get to hang out with Genesis Khan, learn about Mongolian history and life, and a bit about the Decembrists.
Ziegler’s use of history is important because even today one can see the influence of past events. The book isn’t just a history; it is also part travelogue. The opening concerns Ziegler’s travel to the river’s starting point, which he also to undertake by horseback in Monongalia. He travels with game rangers and learns about poaching in the area. More importantly, he relates how life has changed and not changed for the tribesmen in the modern world.
And that’s a primary theme of this book. In many ways, while the Amur river functioned as life giver and food provider, it also, as many rivers did, function as a highway that meant a end to a way of life as new groups move in. Ziegler details the Russian journeys down the Amur River, an event that is very similar to the travels down the Amazon and Nile, but an event that gets less press. He details the history of the Mongols, and why Russia in large measure was spared.
While I did know a little about the Russian Decembrists prior to reading this, Ziegler presents more information, connecting the Amur to the group in two ways. The first, and most interesting, in the story of two wives of the Decembrists who traveled to the far reaches of the river to join their husbands. The second is in how the prison, in part, fulfilled what the group wanted.
Perhaps the greatest flaw in this book is that it is more history than travelogue. While Ziegler paints a fascinating and active history, his painting of the present day isn’t as descriptive. One knows the river’s history more than one knows the river. (Compare this to Turn Right at Machu Picu, where there are both types of description). What does come across extremely well is Ziegler’s love for it. If you enjoyed A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz, Ziegler’s book is almost a Russian version - just with less humor and more drink. -
The Black Dragon River has a long history, reaching as far back as Genghis Khan and the Mongolian empire around 1000 years ago. This was the beginning of its tumultuous history of conflict and war that has lasted pretty much until the present day. Also called the Amur, it is a river that I had never heard of until I picked this book up. Turns out it is the world’s ninth longest and forms part of the border between Russia and China and has been a focal point for each country’s expansion plans over the years. It has seen more than it fair share of death and destruction from both sides
Ziegler begins his journey along the river as Khan would have done, on a horse, from the Mongolian steppe into the taiga to what is thought to be the source of the river. His journey along the river is not always easy so he is forced to take the Trans-Siberian Railway through a valley of water meadows. He does return to the river and the people and places along it, but it almost seems to be a aside. I was hoping this was going to be a fascinating travel book about a relatively unknown part of the world, but sadly there was much more history than travel, and this is a place that has had a lot of brutal events happen. Not bad, but not great. -
Dominic Ziegler is a better-than-average writer, and finds plenty of interesting history to relate in the region described by this book. The Amur River (or Heilongjiang in Chinese) starts off in Mongolia and then separates Siberia from China for many miles.
While I appreciate what was there, what wasn't there was pretty glaring. This history was described almost entirely from the Russian perspective, even though historically this has been considered first and foremost a Chinese and Korean river. (Even the title of the book is a reference to the Chinese name for it.) -
Between Russia, China, and Mongolia, there is a 4,000 mile long river that marks a contested boundary. In telling the history of the Amur River, Dominic Ziegler also relates the history of this part of the Russian Far East. Black Dragon River (the book is the river’s Chinese name) also serves as a travelogue. Ziegler began at the source of the river, the Onon River in Mongolia, and followed the river’s course down to where it meets the Sea of Okhotsk, in Nikolaevsk. The chapters in the book are named for towns and cities along the river’s course, which Ziegler uses as jumping off points to talk about Russian subjugation of the indigenous peoples, Chinese dynastic changes, and the numerous conflicts between the Russian and Chinese empires...
Read the rest of my review at
A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. -
Slow start, wandering focus. Not sure I'll press on.
DNF. Let's see if I can find the review that decided my not pushing on....
Nope. -
Travel nonfiction about the Amur River, which – to be completely honest – I had never heard of before this book. Apparently it is the ninth longest river in the world (well, depending on how you measure it), starts in a mountain range in Mongolia, forms the border between Russia and China, and finally flows into the Pacific. It's also known as the Heilongjiang, which translates directly into "Black Dragon River" – thus the title. Ziegler is the type of travel writer that I prefer: very little memoir-like accounts of his personal experiences or background, and lots and lots of interesting research on the area, in his case mostly history with a bit on the environment (descriptions of local plants and animals, accounts of the destruction wrought by humans, you get the jist).
Much like my experience of the river itself, I knew practically nothing about the history Ziegler covers. He starts with Genghis Khan, who was (probably) born in the same mountain range as the Amur, and that wasn't too new. But then Ziegler goes on to cover the Russian exploration and colonization of Siberia in the 1600s, primarily for the fur trade, led by the Cossacks; the movement of Tibetan-derived Buddhism into the local people; the recapture of the Amur by the Qing Dynasty, leading to the Treaty of Nerchinsk, the first major treaty between China and a European power; the Decembrist revolution and their exile; the reconquering of the Amur by Russia as China was being carved up by various imperialist powers in the 1800s; and the 1969 battle over Damasky Island, as Russia and China vied for control of a small island in the river and the rest of the world freaked out about two nuclear powers fighting. A lot of this history was depressing, involving the usual sort of torture, murder of unarmed innocents, rape, and more that you can always expect from stories of colonization and war. But the history of the Russian Far East was a topic that I had absolutely no awareness of previously, and so I found it fascinating. I can't comment on Ziegler's accuracy or political slant since, again: new to me. I have to leave that to better-informed reviews, though I can say it all seemed well-researched and reasonable.
The book was a bit slow at the beginning, but once I was engaged, I plowed through the rest of it quite quickly. It was very readable, with unobtrusive prose. It's an unusual topic, at least in English, but I'm glad that I know slightly more about it now.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley. -
Only a small part of this book fits the description of a standard travel narrative: where the author went, what he saw, who he met. The majority is a history of the discovery and settlement of the Amur river and its surroundings. That’s not a bad thing, though, since the travel part has memorable descriptions of people and places, and the history is interesting and informative, illuminating a part of the world that few people know anything about.
The larger geopolitical theme that runs through the modern history of the Amur River is the changing, often tense, occasionally hostile relations between Russia and China. The subtheme is one of conquest and plunder. As seems to happen everywhere when “civilization” encounters native people, it is a tale of subjugation, destruction, and murder. After that came the Civil War, which brought its own horrific depredations, and then the Communists arrived, destroying histories, cultures, and peoples in the name of creating Soviet Man. Today the towns on the Russian side of the river are decrepit and dying, and what activity remains is mostly illegal logging and other resource exploitation for the benefit of Putin’s kleptocracy, while the Chinese side bustles with the energy of their expanding economy and influence.
The book is never dull, and some of the scenery is breathtaking. Overall, it wasn’t the book I was expecting, but I am glad I had a chance to read it. -
A very interesting mash-up of history, sociology, landscape and environment, and travel memoir, in that order. While I would have strongly preferred the order to have been reversed, I learned a lot about this remote and under-reported region of the world, as well as a new understanding about the centuries-old--sometimes cordial, sometimes bloody--rivalry between China and Russia in this wild and remote region of both empires.
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History-packed travelogue of a journey down the Amur River region.
The writing is around 90% history between the borderlands and 10% about the travel in the present.
I was impressed with how comprehensive the historical accounts were, particularly the tensions between nations and their race for expansion/retention.
Going by the synopsis, I was expecting there to be more time spent on/at/near the actual river. Unfortunately almost the entire river forming the boundary between Russia and China was off limits so the next best thing was to visit the nearest towns and explore their history.
The present-time interaction with the locals was quite minimal. Russia’s history is quite red and there is a mention that Russians have a lot to forget so this could be the reason many locals were not open in discussing national issues with a foreign journalist.
Some travel writers spend a lot of the time writing about their own experience, such as loneliness on the journey or various hardships encountered however in this book the author chose to give himself an almost ‘third person’s’ account of the journey by focussing on others or objects he viewed at museums.
I would recommend this to history-buffs and anyone interested in learning about places that are off the beaten track. -
Probably 3.5 Stars, and I feel it would’ve been 4 if I had only had a map handy the whole time I was listening to it. Fascinating history, not so fascinating travelogue. If you listen to it like I did, make sure you don’t have any distractions. While it was great for hearing how things were pronounced, the story gets a bit verbose and I easily got lost in many sentences with the background noise of kids.
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This fascinating book is both more and less than its cover would suggest. It is a much broader book in scope than merely looking at the Amur River itself, with the author beginning his journey in Irkutsk, far from the source of even the Onon River, the most Easterly of the Amur's tributaries. Ziegler intersperses his trip, which eventually brings him to the mouth of the Amur, with the history of the lands surrounding the river. He begins this history with Genghis Khan, who grew up in the foothills from which the Onon River springs.
However, most of Ziegler's historical writing is to do with the attempts by Russians to explore, subdue, and exploit the land around the Amur. And what an interesting history it is. Many of the people who moved there became proselytizers for development, suggesting that Southern Siberia was the Russian "West", where not only a civilization could grow, but where a new type of society could flourish. This idea was partly driven by the Russians exiled there for insurrectionist activities, and who re-discovered their Russian-ness in exile.
The Russians back in St. Petersburg were more interested in strategic and resource-getting activities. After the sable and sea-otter were hunted down, timber and caviar became the next targets. Ziegler describes how the rape of the countryside is happening to this day, with the Russian Mafia and Chinese State taking on the role of the early Cossacks in despoiling the land.
Ziegler shows how the early promise of the region - when it was thought that the Amur Basin would be a paradise, with goods flowing from it across to America from Nikolaevsk, the town at the Amur's mouth that would become a new San Francisco - gradually diminished owing to the difficulties of the terrain, the weather, and lack of investment. Even the Trans-Siberian Railway didn't help: the line back West meant that dreams of Eastern development were once again stymied.
As Ziegler travels along the river he sees old dreams that have been shattered, and much despair left in their wake. There are no good modern stories to be told along the river, although much of the past is being twisted to serve nationalistic ends. Much has been forgotten, and much remembered wrongly.
And what of China, across the river? Ziegler shows how a treaty between Russia and China signed in 1689 set a benchmark for mostly peaceful relations since. Both sides choose not to provoke the other, while trying to minimize the other's historic presence in the region by re-writing history.
So, this book, while an interesting social, historical, and political work on Southern Siberia and the relations between Russia and China, is not really a trip down the Amur River.
One more gripe with this book - while it has a good general bibliography and index, the one map provided is hopeless: more than half of the places mentioned in the text are not shown on it. There are no photographs or drawings of any kind in the book, a poor showing from the publishers, as they would have added considerably to the text.
All-in-all this book is a bit of a curate's egg: interesting in parts.
Check out my other reviews at
http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/ -
Oh, my! I'd love to read a more even-handed treatment of the same journey. What puzzles me too is how on Earth he conducted his multiple in-depth interviews, recording innermost outpourings of the Russians from all walks of life, while not speaking the language? Make no mistake - only a handful of people he talked to commanded some degree of fluency. His profile at The Economist says he speaks English, French and German. No Russian or Chinese whatsoever.
The way he treated the material makes it a valuable anti-Russian propaganda piece. All is filth, greed, hate, decrepitude, drunkenness, etc. Vast majority of warm and compassionate words are addressed to the wildlife of the area and somewhat grudgingly to China, when compared to Russia.
Don't take me wrong, I'm not an apologetic of Russian chauvinism or Putin, but this work could be vividly contrasted with another book I'm reading at the moment, the one that covers another much maligned Russian misdeed - 'Afghan' by Sir Roderic Braithwaite. He deals with a far more controversial topic, yet manages to produce an unbiased narrative, finding bad and good in actions of all sides, even tangentially involved in the conflict. Not that he forcefully balances good with evils, but he tries to be objective: he calls sadists sadists, but he never slaps labels and cliches left and right. Being able not to ride through on a high moral horse is apparently a talent not everyone's born with.
I gave it 3 stars mostly for driving attention to this God forsaken region. It's a unique and beautiful area, rich in wildlife and cultures. -
Ziegler is the Asia correspondent for the Economist and a very knowlegeable chap. He is interested in the Russian expansion into the far East, in particular into the Amur River area and down to Vladivostok. He recounts the history of the region, beginning with the Mongols; ghengis Khan's birthplace is near the head waters of a major Amur tributary. He goes on to describe the efforts of 17th century Cossacks who tamed the Wild East. This movement got a big boost after the Decenbrist Revolt in 1820 ish Russia when the Czar packed off many disgraced nobles to Siberia. A big question Ziegler addresses is why the Chinese but the Russians so much slack? They are always irrate about British and other Western colonizations and "unfair" treaties but they let the Russians walk off with a HUGH piece of real estate that arguable used to be theirs (although the locals, like Mongols and Manchus may have been conquers so who's who is debatable). IN any case I liked his descriptions of this harsh land and fading people as well as the history. As China gets stronger, and Chines filter into the area be diffusion, it will be interesting to see what happens between these two powerful nations
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An interesting travel book The author sought to find the headwaters of the Amur River and follow it to the sea. His journey takes him to Tibet, Russia, and China traveling by rail, water, and roadways. He tells the history of the places he visits, their native and colonial peoples (Russian and Chinese). He concludes with its implications today, its importance to both China and Russia. Russian views and description of Putin, especially at its publication date (2015) are most interesting.
PS I listened to the book in the evening as I sewed. Brilliance Audio. -
This is a great travel book that doubles as an engrossing history of this remote part of the world. The sheer vastness of the Amur watershed is difficult to fathom. Ziegler adeptly switches between the travel and historical narratives. There is enough on each topic to have this book stand alone as a volume dedicated to either.
The only recent knowledge I have about this area came from watching a documentary about Siberian (Amur) tigers, the largest members of the cat family, and another shorter documentary about the people of Mongolia.
The former included information about the natives of the area and a wee bit about their history and ancient culture. That show piqued my interest in reading this book when I discovered it.
Ziegler is a good writer. My experience is that journalists tell better, more engaging stories than historians. His book is further proof of my theory.
About halfway through the book I realized I needed to keep a dictionary at hand while reading. Ziegler's vocabulary is vast, much greater than I'm accustomed. This isn't a problem; I enjoyed looking up the dozens of words I didn't know. However, I'm curious where he learned some of them! When researching his background beyond the back flap of the dust jacket, I learned he is fluent in multiple languages. Maybe that's the source of his incredible vocabulary. He never uses it it pretentiously or pedantically however, so it wasn't a bother to me.
I found the first section, about his journey by horse to the source of the Amur, most interesting. It included a great deal of information about Mongol history and culture - past and present. His vivid descriptions of the vast Asian steppe were page-turning. The second section, about the early Russian explorers of the Far East, was also very informative and well-written, painting clear pictures of the desolation and largess of the vast, relatively-empty quarter.
There wasn't as much about the Soviet area as I had anticipated. To me it seemed he jumped rather quickly from the early 20th century to modern times as his journey reaches the end of the river. I also had hoped there would be more about the tigers. I guess he determined that story was already well-known and better told by others. The cats are only mentioned in passing in a couple of places. Other descriptions of the flora and fauna are thorough and complete, riveting me as a reader.
I read a lot of travel-related books. They usually make me want to visit the far-off lands they describe. This book intensified the pull of this vast area and put it near the top of my "must visit" list. The great logistical complexities, many of which Ziegler describes, likely preclude me from ever making such a visit. Regardless, he has told a wonderful story, interwoven with history of multiple cultures, biology, hydrology, geography and a good deal about food and diet. I struggle to think how anybody who dreams of, and likes reading about, far away places won't be enthralled and entertained by this book.
My one complaint, albeit a small one, is that the book contains no pictures. That's kind of odd for a travel-related narrative, especially one covering such a vast area. Given the huge swath and variety of land he covers, it would have been nice to see photos of some of the things he described, even if taken from a small point-and-shoot camera. I have to think his personal security probably prevented him from doing so. He reports a couple of instances where he's suspected of being a spy. A foreigner traipsing around this remote and sensitive area, much of it a lengthy border between China and Russia, probably made picture taking an untenable enterprise. Still... -
A heartfelt and unique travel memoir, Black Dragon River sheds new light on a rather overlooked region of the globe, or rather, it illuminates it entirely.
To borrow a phrase from perhaps the pre-eminent author in this genre, Robert D Kaplan, a journey through history, Black Dragon River is both a journey and an immersion into history. Covering every detail from the Mongol hordes under Genghis Khan, a sweeping history of the Cossacks, the early treaties dividing the borders between Romanov Russia and Qing China, the early history of the Manchu peoples, from the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, to Nurhaci re-branding the people under a new name, to the much forgotten 1969 border war between the Chinese and the Soviets, this book simply covers it all. Every consequential piece of history affecting this region, is contained within this highly readable single volume.
Ziegler not only brings to life the history, but rams home the significance of the geography. While the Amur River is entirely noticeable on any map, one does not get an appreciation of the vastness of this waterbody until one Ziegler describes the vastness of this region.
Having traveled in China's Northeast, this book was initially bought to shed new light on this region, but to one's surprise, the travelogue takes place largely in Russia, with a few chapters in Mongolia. This surprise was a pleasant one, as one develops a greater sense of feeling for the Russian Far Eastern spirit, and Ziegler's sentimental and descriptive writing makes you feel as though you are there with him.
In all, a well informed, well researched, well written, and truly heartfelt travel memoir. A true gem in the historical travel writing genre. -
This book was a lot heavier on the historical side than I expected, and, since I went into the book hoping for more of an ethnography-slash-natural history of the region, that was a little disappointing. (My mistake.) I love historical accounts when they’re written in an engaging way, so I wasn’t super bothered, but the book wasn’t quite what I expected. I definitely appreciated the thoroughness of the author’s research and enjoyed learning about the rather obscure history of a place no one really talks about, so to that end, “Black Dragon River” really worked. But it did, at points, seem to drag, and the format of the edition of the book that I read (small font and tiny margins, so text was just crammed into every inch of space) made it feel way longer than it was - I’m really nitpicking here and I’m sorry because that wasn’t the fault of the book itself, but that did sort of detract from the experience. Overall, though, this was an interesting, in-depth study of an oft-ignored part of the world.
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Purchase Black Dragon River here for just $12!
The world’s ninth largest river, at various times a plaything juggled between the Chinese and Russian empires, now a hodgepodge of cultures and the frontier between two superpowers. Immerse yourself in this fascinating jaunt through unfamiliar terrain and unjustly neglected history.
Ethan - The Book Grocer -
What I was expecting was an exploration of the Amur River region as natural history, travelogue, and some straight up history. What I got was a deep geopolitical history of the Russian far east, China, and Mongolia with a smattering of personal experiences. It is exceptionally well written and thoroughly researched, always interesting and readable. Also a bit more of a chew than I was expecting. A worthy read and I appreciate having a substantial fuzzy patch of my understanding of the world brought into sharper focus.
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I found the description of the authors travels and his look at recent history of the region fascinating. Genghis khan less so. The ancient history of the region with the sequential conquest and loss of various portions of what is now Russia’s Far East much less so. Still I feel some interest in the Amur and following its future having read the book