On my first trip to China I brought with me the name and address of my hotel that I printed off the internet in Chinese. I couldn’t read it, of course, but I knew that it was my one way to get to my hotel, and I knew my cabbie would know that too.
I grabbed my luggage, got to the curb and showed it to the cabbie. He asked me some question in Chinese, I gave him some answer in loud English and he drove me door to door. But this was just the beginning.
Lonely Planet has a glowing reputation for their diligence in writing guide books. They offer complete, comprehensive guides with enough opinion to be friendly and enough objectivity to be, well, objective. Their guide books have the names of all the attractions listed in Chinese. That means you can hop in a taxi, point out the name of the place you want to go, and he’ll take you there.
That’s what the Chinese is for in your guidebooks, so that when you get lost you can ask a local and get back on your way.
But if your guidebook doesn’t have the Chinese spellings in it, all hope is not lost. In the morning I would stop by the concierge, give him pieces of paper with all the places I wanted to go in the day and have him write them down in Chinese on the back of each one. I’d tuck my little slips in my pocket and head for my first destination.
The advantage to talking with the concierge is that he may be able to recommend a better way of getting there or another trip you might like to take as well. Sometimes hotels even offer discount packages on these sorts of excursions, but just as often they offer ones that cost more.
Then, of course, when your day is done, just hop back in a taxi and show him your “my hotel” flash card and call it a day.
