Teacher writes naughty travel book that could end her travels in China

Hong Kong author and Cantonese teacher Cecilie Gamst Berg has come up with a new - and very naughty - book on China.

Don't Joke on the Stairs is based on the author's 20 years of travel across the mainland. It might help put an end to her mainland travelling - let's hope the censors across the border are not too incensed by it. 'The book recounts my travels from the Tibetan Plateau to the Chinese-North Korea border,' she said.

'You get tips on dog-eating, how to survive as a vegetarian (you can't), how to sit up all night on the train, how to avoid being spat on and how to avoid alcohol poisoning (you can't). Six-lane highways - are they really necessary where there are no cars?'

It also delivers a serious historical judgment on Chairman Mao Zedong and attempts to answer, once and for all, whether he was an ordinary dictator or the worst tyrant the world has ever seen.

'It aims to penetrate behind all the Olympic smokescreens,' she said.

Or at least the air pollution.