A new book for travellers to China plans to make no mention of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Editor Phil Friedman - who is working on the book - says people want different things from a travel guide.

"I don't think talk about the killings is appropriate for a travel guide... Tiananmen Square had thousands of years of history before that occurred. Tiananmen is a feudal site, hugely important historic site. I'm not sure people travelling there would go there because there were shootings."

But to Independent travel editor Simon Calder, this attitude is problematic.

"Travel guides are not just about telling you where to get a cheap bed and meet the locals in civil circumstances. They are helping you to understand a place," he says.

There is an obvious commercial dilemma for publishers, with the Bookseller magazine reporting that some travellers have had copies of Lonely Planet confiscated by overzealous officials because of its references to the massacre.

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