“China” is a coffee-table tome of epic proportions

Chinese New Year is coming soon (on Western calendars, it’s Sunday), but if you can’t make it to the Middle Kingdom to marvel at fireworks, here’s a quieter option.

Check out “China” (Abbeville Press, 244 pages), a new, epic photo book that is to most coffee-table volumes what the Great Wall is to your backyard fence.

Measuring nearly 12 by nearly 18 inches and contained within a sturdy slipcase, it features 238 images -- most by photographer Ming Tan -- and 12 gatefold panoramas. Each copy of the book also comes with a numbered print, signed by Ming Tan. The price? A hefty $185.

So this is not a book for penny pinchers. Nor is it the book to buy if you want a sense of the country’s vast population and ferocious contemporary energy. In fact, from these compositions you might conclude that the place is woefully underpopulated.

But that’s not really a problem. The focus is on 44 remarkable locations, most of them natural wonders and historic structures, and the list reaches beyond the palaces of Beijing and the terracotta warriors of Xian to include many sites unknown to many Westerners.

The photography is top-notch. And a few of China’s big cities do turn up, seething and gleaming, in the final few pages.

Give editor Guang Guo credit for pulling together a striking celebration of landscape. But before you pick up this book, do a few stretching exercises. It’s that heavy.

At nearly 12 by 18 inches, “China” is a big book.

At the Summer Palace in the suburbs of Beijing, the Jade Belt Bridge rises above Kunming Lake. (Page 54)

Also near Kunming Lake are the red columns of the Long Corridor, said to be the longest covered walkway in the world. (Page 55)

At the Chengde Mountain Resort in northern Hebei Province, the temple of Putuo Zongchen rises amid scattered clouds. (Page 58)

On Mt. Lushan in eastern Jiangxi Province, clouds cling to the slopes and a historic temple clings to a lonely ridge. (Page 93)

Majestic Purple Heaven hall was built on Mt. Wudang in Hubei. (Page 95)

The Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan was carved out of a mountainside in the 8th century. At 233 feet high, it is one of the largest images of the Buddha in the world. (Page 101)

These standing rocks, draped with greenery, are found in the Wulingyuan area of the mountainous Hunan Province. (Page 116)

Nuorilang Falls, in the Sichuan Province’s lake-rich Jiuzhaigou region, are said to be the widest falls in China. (Page 183)

Potala Palace in Lhasa is widely hailed as the most majestic building in Tibet. It may have been begun in the 7th century. (Page 205)

In the outer city of Beijing, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is part of a 675-acre temple complex that dates to the 1400s. (Pages 42 and 43)

The city of Suzhou in southern China includes the Mingse Tower and Hanbi Mountain Villa in the Lingering Garden. (Page 162)

Also in Suzhou, the Moon and Breeze Pavilion is part of Wangshi Garden. (Page 165)

The Great Wall, constructed over two millenniums, covers more than 5,000 miles in northern China. Here it rises and falls as it crosses a series of snow-covered hills. (Page 41)