Beijing Travel Forum

Hi!

I'm gonna be in Beijing during the olympics and I've started to do some research.

I've understood that not many Beijingers speak any english and that it's recommended to bring along chinese addresses to the places you want to visit to show the taxi driver. I found a guide book for the classic tourist places but nothing about good shopping places. I've tride to find it on the internet with little success. Does anyone know of a good website or a good book with chinese character addresses to the major markets for printing?

Thanks!
/Johny E

i went to china for a few months two years ago... i found it was worth having a notebook with you and when you do find someone who knows english to get them to write down in chinese characters (and maybe phonetics) things you've been frustrated you couldnt say!
One important one for me was 'internet' as in internet cafe which wasnt in my couple of year old phrasebook... i was looking around for weeks before i found my first one, id been walking past these things, often situated on the floors above the shops without even realising! think the symbol for internet was a three sided square (missing the bottom side) with a cross in it but its hard to remember now. but we managed to get that information just off the street.

i dont know about addresses as such, i found our guide book or the internet (if we booked a hostel) had the chinese characters there already or we'd just go exploring by ourselves. The younger looking student-age chinese have a better understanding of english, it might be worth asking a few to see if any of them could help you? a couple of times we got a free guide for the day when we got chatting as students wanted to practice their english with us, there was no catch and we'd buy them dinner to say thank you. we found those who could communicate with us very friendly and eager to help, id suggest making the most of the opportunity when you do find someone you can communicate with.

hope that helps a little, good luck!

Well, maybe Nyght_tiger gave you all the answers allready but I can give you one good internet tip:

www.shoppinginbeijing.com

There you can find maps and addresses to most of the markets.

I agree with Nyght_tiger that the internet character is a good thing to know about and it almost looks like he/she described:
http://www.sinopedia.fr/jdd/public/charset/charset3/32593.png

I can also give you a suggestion of a good guide book; "The Isider's Guide to Beijing". Not a good phrase book but very "up to date" when it comes to shopping, restaurants, night life and more touristy type of things to do in Beijing.

Good luck!
/Carina

1、Art & Antiques
Panjiayuan 潘家园旧货市场
HongQiao Pearl Market 虹桥市场
Yueshow/YueXiu Fashion Market 朝外岳秀服装市场

2、Clothes
Xidan Area 西单
Silk Market 秀水街 丝绸市场（二环路东）
Yashow Clothing Market 三里屯雅秀服装市场

3、Electronics
Zhongguancun 中关村

4、Tea
Tea Street 马莲道茶叶市场

Thanks!

shoppinginbeijing.com was exactly what I was looking for and Nyght_tiger's tips will surely be helpful.

frank.gu, your reply is just a bunch of numbers to me. I guess I need to install chinese characters on my laptop to see it correctyl. Thanks anyway!

/Johny

Hey, I had the same problem when I first moved to Beijing. My friend gave my the guidebook called "the Insider's Guide to Beijing." It literally has everything you want to know about the city. Shopping, nightlife for bars, clubbing, dancing, family, etc, where to eat, what the best restaurants, bars, places are. It compared all of the touristy sites so I was able to find which mall or place I wanted to go. The best part is that its all in English but it has the addresses to the places in characters that you can show to the cab drivers. I still use the book to find new places to go and when my parents came to visit. Remember, Immersion Guides "the Insider's Guide to Beijing 2008"

dave

Johnny100 We are going to China right after you in Sep 08. I have been saving every photo I can find that has a sign. I just stick them in my China photo file then when I see a cheap photo processing offer, I get them printed. I did the same thing in Italy. All I had to do is pull out the photo of the place I wanted to go with the place's name sign visible. I am thinking this should work for China too. I also have a copy of "Point it" and "Me No Speak" for the things that are too hard to pantamine.