Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
First, forget the word courier. In Beijing the word is
“kuàidì”
(
快递
), a term so often used
that even expats relinquish the English alternative.
Kuàidì
are almost a standard way for in-
dividuals and businesses in the city to get all manner of things across the city and abroad.
If you need to send a document or parcel to anyone within Beijing, it can be much more
reliable to send it via EMS or SF Express than via China Post. On average this will cost just
RMB10-20. If you'd rather go with a brand you know, all the major international courier
companies are here in Beijing, including DHL, FedEx, TNT, and UPS. Offices and hotels
occasionally have working relationships with a given courier company, so you may find it
cheaper if you can do it through these.
English literature of any variety is somewhat controlled in Beijing, and any visit to Beijing
Capital Airport might even give you the impression that it's all but banned outright. In-
ternational English magazines are definitely hard to come by. International supermarkets
occasionally stock a small range, most typically titles such as
The Economist
and
Time.
Page One bookstores also have a limited collection, but the biggest ranges are to be found
in the Bookworm in Sanlitun and Trends Lounge in the Place. For international specialty
magazines, look to Taobao, which can be a surprisingly good depository of current publica-
tions and subscriptions. Otherwise, you may need to arrange some kind of subscription and
delivery system from your home country, wait for visitors, or look for digital options.
There are several locally published street and online magazines, including
Time Out,
The Beijinger,
and
City Weekend,
as well as online-only magazines
www.smartbeijing.com
and
www.echinacities.com
.
While these are indispensable for finding out what's going on
around town, they do all tend to cover the same kind of thing. These are not magazines that
will give you deep and edgy insights into issues of society.
The World of Chinese,
however,
is a nicely designed English-language magazine that has a strong focus on modern Chinese
culture.
If you're interested in contemporary Chinese writing, there are various journals ded-
icated to translation. These include
Asymptote
(
www.asymptotejournal.com
)
,
Chutzpah!
(
www.chutzpahmagazine.com.cn
), and
Pathlight
(
http://paper-republic.org/pubs/pathlight
)
.
