A taxi driver in Xi'an gave me the most confusing directions of my life

Last fall, I was trying to get to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and my driver, Mr. Li, insisted on explaining the route using food. He said, 'Go straight like a noodle for two lights, then turn soft like tofu at the roundabout.' I was so lost trying to picture it! He drew a little map on a napkin with a dumpling where the pagoda was. We got there, but it took an extra 15 minutes because I kept looking for a literal noodle shop. Has anyone else gotten hilariously creative directions from a local somewhere in China?

3 comments

3 Comments

gray_schmidt81mo ago

You're talking about the dumpling map being genius but I gotta push back on that a bit. The guy who drew it probably thought he was being super helpful but it's actually the same problem as the noodle directions. You're relying on someone's personal mental picture that nobody else can decode. I've had that happen in Guangzhou where a lady told me to go "toward the red smell" because there was a famous chili oil shop that closed years ago. Took me forever to figure out she meant a building that used to smell like chili. At some point you just gotta ask them to point or use a map app. Their way makes sense to them sure but it leaves the rest of us wandering around looking for food that doesn't exist anymore.

the_fiona2mo ago

That dumpling map is actually kind of genius. Got lost in Chengdu once because a guy told me to turn left "where the old tree used to be." Spoiler, the tree was gone. You just have to roll with it, their way makes perfect sense to them.

aaron6772mo ago

Wait, is Chengdu known for dumplings? I always thought that was more of a northern China thing, with Sichuan focusing on hot pot and mapo tofu. Maybe the dumpling map was for a specific local spot?