Black Dragon River

A Journey Down the Amur River at the Borderlands of Empires

By: Dominic Ziegler

Narrated by: Steve West

A remarkable journey down the Amur River, revealing the history and culture of a region that is once again becoming one of the world's most contested regions

Black Dragon River is a personal journey down one of Asia's great rivers. The world's ninth largest river, the Amur serves as a large part of the border between Russia and China. As a crossroads for the great empires of Asia, this area offers journalist Dominic Ziegler a lens with which to examine the societies at Europe's only borderland with East Asia. He follows a journey from the river's top to bottom and weaves the history, ecology, and peoples to show a region obsessed with the past - and to show how this region holds a key to the complex and critical relationship between Russia and China today.

The Amur crosses terrain legendarily difficult to cross. 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 400-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.

©2015 Dominic Ziegler (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Fascinating history

A very entertaining and informative trip down the Amur. The narrator was excellent and easy to listen to throughout the story.

Review

Lots of history and anthropological data. Well written and engaging despite its length. 2 more

Not a bad book

I don't see anything wrong with the author mixing his personal recollection with the 3rd party narrative of the story.

Black Dragon River

It's funny that the book title is a translation of the Chinese name for the river, but, based on the subject matter, it should be called "Russian Settlement of the Amur Region." The vast majority of the book is about Russian history of the area, rather than Chinese or the other native tribes of the area. The native people are mentioned, but, with brief exceptions, there is little detail about them, their lifestyles or their histories. It's obvious the writer is fluent in Russian and his interest is in Russian history, and there is some interesting information in the book. He does mention the flora and fauna, and he spends some time discussing the Mongol history and current situation, which are important, though there is nothing about the geologic history of the river and how it developed. Overall it's an interesting book, and the author did a lot of research, so I can't give him a bad rating, it's just skewed too much in one topic for my interest. The narration is good overall.

And, a wonderful journey, too.

Ziegler seamlessly interweaves the story of the Amur from the past to present and back again. From Gengis Khan and the Buryats to modern day Russia and China, a fascinating tale of the trials and tribs of borderlands and empires and the respect given to this great river.