Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/11/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 03:54 PM 11/13/2005, you wrote: >Was the language barrier a big problem? Did you have someone with you, >who could interpret for you? Was it more of a problem in the >countryside? >How about the cities? > > >feli Hi, Feli - You'll have a great time! We had a young couple who took us around in Beijing for the first week, but after that we were on our own. We didn't try to drive, but took trains, buses, subways, taxis, and planes with no problems. I had the Lonely Planet guide to Mandarin Chinese and the Rough Guide China guidebook has all of the place names for hotels, restaurants, and towns written out in Chinese characters. We could just point to them for a taxi driver. Hotel employees were helpful for writing out names of other places we wanted to go. In restaurants, we just found something that somebody else was eating that looked good and pointed to it. Some restaurants had picture menus. Almost nobody had English menus and there were very few signs in English. One reason we didn't try renting a car and driving is that all of the caution, detour, and many place name signs on the highways were only in Chinese characters. We learned to say Hello (nee how) and Thank you (xia xia) and everybody seemed very appreciative when we'd try to speak to them in Chinese. Parents were very proud when their children could speak a little English and they always wanted the children to practice speaking to us. We met no other foreigners traveling on their own, but there were plenty of big tour groups - usually all wearing one color baseball cap and following the guide with an umbrella or flag. I'd rather be independent and get lost! We particularly liked the old sections and Muslim quarters in the big cities. As the guidebook said "It's easy to get lost, but that's not always a bad thing!" All of the hotels give out business cards with the name of the hotel in Chinese so if you get lost you just find a taxi and show the driver the business card. Taxis cost about $1.50 to go anywhere in the big cities. A month was not long enough, but we do plan to go back someday. Have a great trip! Tina Tina Manley, ASMP http://www.tinamanley.com