finding places in Beijing

I remember arriving in China in 1985 and noticing that there were no commonly used phone books, either white or yellow pages.  It was hard to find phone numbers, let alone addresses.  To find a new place you basically went to the general vicinity and asked the locals.  Now, with addresses and phone numbers changing so often due to urban construction, many locations in a print phone book would be quickly out-of-date anyway.

Location finding has got to be as indispensable an online service for Chinese people as it is for Americans (what would we do without Mapquest?).  MaryAnn O’Donnell recently pointed out the Xuntu digital map site, which provides a surprisingly broad range of Beijing “maps.”  Most are addresses and descriptions rather than actual cartography–but still quite useful.

In addition to the usual places one might want to find–hospitals, long distance bus stations, health clubs, and Beijing roast duck restaurants, Xuntu also offers directions for more obscure desires and needs such as marriage registry offices, celebrity homes, hot springs, and abortion clinics.

There’s also, of course, a BBS with personal posts like “commonly used phone numbers in Beijing”, “places to buy monthly bus passes, IC cards…” and other cards, and requests for where to find those old-style fasteners.

Can’t wait to see how it all ramps up with 3G in Beijing for 2008.