temppeternh

The question of how to get around China by yourself is a perennial topic here. In order to encourage readers to tackle at least Beijing by themselves, here's a directory of a vast number of Beijing's sights in alphabetical order, with the Chinese characters for their names. Just show the characters to your taxi driver or to people in the street...

http://bit.ly/2mzT0e6

kja

What a wealth of information! Thank you so much for sharing this amazing resource.

thursdaysd

Yes, thanks very much! Certainly no reason to complain there is nothing to see in Beijing besides the usual list!!

Quick question - i was looking at the characters, and all the museums and memorial halls - and even the planetarium - end with the same character, except for Guānfù Classic Art Museum (which sounds well worth seeing). Is it actually called something other than a museum in Chinese?

temppeternh

Good catch.

It's actually the same character but in its original full form:

館

as opposed to modern, simplified:

馆

which takes five fewer strokes to write, but makes no difference to keyboard entry. Anyone can read either. But I'll swap it for the simplified version.

It's merely 'hall', or 'building', and so is part of 'museum', (博物馆) 'memorial hall' (纪念馆), 'hotel' (宾馆), 'restaurant' (饭馆), etc.

temppeternh

I see what's happened: It looks as though I've taken the characters from the museum's own materials rather than re-entering them myself as I usually do, and the whole name is in full-form characters, some of which might indeed flummox the modern taxi driver. Some institutions like to suggest seriousness and antiquity by using full-form characters rather than simplified ones on their signs. When I'm next at the right keyboard I'll simplify.

thursdaysd

Thanks Peter! Although I'll never speak Mandarin (or any other tonal language), I'm always intrigued by the characters.

kja

What eyes, thursdaysd! Thanks for the explanation, Peter.

CanadaChinaTraveller

You may want to check you links. I randomly clicked on an attraction (Art Museum) and it took me to pa page that is unrelated to the place.

kja

Hmm... If I check the Art Museum link, I <b><u>do</b></u> get to the Art Museum, although I have to scroll down a bit to get there. The link takes me to a section with information about a part of Beijing ("northwest beyond the zoo"), and if I scroll down, I easily see the Art Museum, with the Chinese characters and a short description.

loncall

This is a really helpful list both in terms of suggestions of places to visit that might not be part of the fully beaten track and also in terms of ready access to the relevant Chinese characters. Many thanks for posting it is going straight into my trip research file !

CanadaChinaTraveller

Well, I just tried again and still get to The Wànshòu Sì (Longevity Temple).

temppeternh

I'm glad people are finding it useful.

I'm planning to post sometime soon a directory of all the metro stations in alphabetical order, with tone-marked names, Chinese characters, and for each a list of the sights or other useful services (e.g. airport bus stops) nearby. But it's a time-consuming piece of work, and while I put it together the city keeps opening new metro lines...

kja

@ CanadaChinaTraveller: Yes indeed, that is the page! Scroll down.

@ temppeternh: The metro station list would be utterly awesome!

temppeternh

I'll start a new thred. But here you go: An alphabetical list of Beijing metro stations with tone-marked pinyin names, Chinese characters, line(s) on which each station may be found, and all nearby sights, bus connections to others, and more. Some of the stations listed will only open later in 2017.

http://bit.ly/2mv1L8s

temppeternh

For thursdaysd: a very simple introduction as to how Mandarin works, with a section on how the characters are formed:

http://bit.ly/2mmMCKq

thursdaysd

Thanks Peter! I did notice that all the TV programs seemed to come with sub-titles in characters, presumably to get around the "dialect" problem. I also noticed a singular lack of understanding of pinyin, but my last visit was back in 2004 and maybe things have changed.

On my last visit I was stuck in a small southwestern town during bad weather and acquired a "NEW AGE Little Chinese-English Dictionary" (along with, I think, an abbreviated Wind in the Willows in both Chinese and English). Attempting to apply your instructions to the dictionary demonstrated it is indeed little, as it had only nine three stroke possibilities to combine with the female radical and your example wasn't one of them. On the other hand, the very first entry under ma (1st tone) is mum.

shelemm

Great list and a very worthwhile project. Thank you so much for compiling this!

I do take exception at your description of the Red Sandalwood Museum. You make it sound like it's just a furniture meueum. It containes many impressive large museum installations that are eye-popping.

it is true we very much had the museum all to ourselves, but the good part was that, as Americans, we were treated like celebrities.

temppeternh

> You make it sound like it's just a furniture meueum.

I'm glad you find the material useful. On this particular museum, though, like another commenter here, you perhaps need to read beyond paragraph 2, in this case only to paragraphs 4 and 5:

"In addition to samples of authentic furniture, which may be of interest to those thinking of shopping for reproductions, there are a number of works of original sculpture in wood, including a large piece of driftwood carved into the shape of a giant ginseng root topped with three figures representing happiness, a handsome salary, and longevity.

"Finely carved tree trunks represent mountain pilgrimages, scurrying with stairways and wizened walking-stick-toting figures, wildlife, and deities. There are copies of imperial thrones and models in red sandalwood of important buildings, such as a corner tower from the Palace Museum or ‘Forbidden City’, at 1/5th scale, and a 1/10th scale model of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in the Temple of Heaven, made of teak clad in gold foil. A large model of a traditional courtyard house is matched by one of a princely mansion (see Princely Privileges)."

See http://bit.ly/2nkNBrG

In passing, all foreigners receive a warm welcome, not least because the place sees so few visitors. There's nothing special about being American.

worthsharingnow

Most of the hotels and hostels you stay at will have the common sights written out in Chinese for you. The ones we stayed at had business-card sized written out directions, and every hotel will also have a little pamphlet on how to get back to the hotel, with the address in Chinese.

China is easy to navigate if you are prepared, but difficult if you are not.

This is the review that I wrote on Beijing, I was there in November 2016:

http://www.worthsharingnow.com/blog-.../beijing-china

China is amazing, fun, and totally doable by yourself, but you DO need to prepare beforehand.

Beware scams, they are prevalent. Your hotel should warn you of the common ones around your area, most of them know what they are. The one that we got warned of everywhere was to never trust somebody who says that your money is fake (they will take your real money and give you back a fake one and tell you that is the one YOU gave them).

Have fun!

loncall

Thanks for the link to your fabulous blog Worthsdharingnow and for the further encouragement this gives to 'going it alone' in China. I really want to go to China and really hate tour groups and guides and so links like yours and temppeternh's wealth of information are important as they build up my confidence and a picture of what is feasible.