Advice for Travelers in China: Maps Redux

Ok, I officially take back the whole map thing. Or at least half of it. I still think it's necessary for walking around the city, but it's practically useless for explaining to a taxi driver where you'd like to go, or for trying to get unlost by asking a person on the street.

All my maps have had far more Chinese on them than English, so it's not a translation problem -- it just seems to be a cultural one. As far as I can tell no one I've met has a bird's eye view sense of their city. It's just not part of their consciousness. A written address they can handle. The Chinese characters for the temple you're going to, fine. But not one person has successfully been able to look at a map and tell me where I currently am, or how to get to the place I'm going. The cab drivers have pretty much scoffed, though they finally manage by reading the street names which tells them where I'm trying to go. Mind you, once they figure out the name of the intersection, they have no problem. They know their city well -- but maps are just not anyone's thing.

Instead, make sure you take a business card from any hotel at which you stay so you can hand it to a cab driver, and find a friendly person to write the characters down for any place you are trying to go.