Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BĚIJĪNG ON FOOT
The city itself may appear uncontrollably huge, but Běijīng is a city of orderly design (unlike Shànghǎi). Think
of the city as one giant grid, with the Forbidden City at its centre.
Street signs in Běijīng are marked in both Chinese characters and Pinyin (romanised Chinese). Even so, un-
derstanding a little basic Chinese will help to make some sense of street names. It is also useful to refer to our
detailed maps, where many roads are labelled with Chinese characters. To assist you around town, we have also
frequently added road names in Chinese in the text.
The majority of Běijīng's larger streets are affixed with the word
jiē
, which means 'street', as in Wangfujing
Dajie (Dajie here means 'big street', 'avenue' or just 'street') - 'Wangfujing St'. Occasionally the world
lù
is
also used, meaning 'road', as in Zhangzizhong Lu - 'Zhangzizhong Rd'. Běijīng's plentiful alleyways in the
centre of town are called
hútòng
; a minority are called
xiàng
, which means 'alley' or 'lane'. Another term used
is
lǐ
, meaning 'neighbourhood'.
Many road names are also compound words that place the road in context with others in the city, by using the
points of the compass. The following words are used in compound street names:
běi
north
nán
south
dōng
east
xī
west
zhōng
central
So, Gulou Dongdajie means 'Gulou East St' and Dongdan Beidajie means 'Dongdan North St'.
However, some Běijīng street names have local idiosyncrasies. Jianguomenwai Dajie means 'the avenue out-
side (
wai
) Jianguo Gate ( Jianguomen)' - that is, outside the old wall - whereas Jianguomennei Dajie means
'the avenue inside Jianguo Gate'. The gate in question no longer exists, so it survives in name alone.
Unlike countless other Chinese cities, Běijīng is one place where you won't find a Jiefang Lu (Liberation
Rd), Renmin Lu (People's Rd), Zhongshan Lu (Zhongshan Rd) or a Beijing Lu (Beijing Rd). Five ring roads (
huánlù
) circle the city centre in concentric rings.
JÌNGYUÁN CHUĀNCÀI$$
|CHINESE SÌCHUĀN
( 19 Dongjiaomin Xiang, mains ¥20-50; 10.30am-2pm & 4.30-9.30pm; ; Qianmen, Tian'anmen East or
Wangfujing)
More expensive than other standard Sichuanese restaurants, but then other
standard Sichuanese restaurants aren't housed inside the 1901 former French Post Office