Scott mentions two things, the environment in the PRC and touring the Eastern bloc, pre-'89.
On the first, a newish book that has gotten good reviews is, "Mao's War On Nature, " published by Harvard Univ. Press.
The month tour I took of Europe in the summer of '79 included the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia. Our tour bus was not allowed to stop anywhere overnight in the GDR. Saw lots of murals of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. (The paper of the Czech CP, Rude Pravo, into the 80's, had the same set of icons.)
We did stay in beautiful Prague for three days though. Our guide there around the city had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Prague Spring reforms of '68, and 11 yrs. later was cynical about Communism. In my hotel room I left behind, "The Revolution Betrayed, " by Trotsky and a copy of Telos with an interview with Habermas. A greatprogressive rock/free jazz rock band from there is the, "Plastic People of The Universe." In the early 70's members of the band were imprisoned, which led to the founding of Charter 77, eventually, by their supporters. That org. was a mix of reform Communists, Trotskyists (Jiri Dienstibier, much later, Czech representative to the OSCE, I think) and Christian Democrats. Blanking on the name of the editor but there is a good anthology of writings by Czech left dissidents of the 70's, "Socialist Opposition in Communist Czechoslovakia, " and some of the same figures are in a book of speeches to a conference organized by the Italian left paper, Il Manifesto, in the late 70's. M.P