The trick that saved my trip to Beijing's hutongs

I kept getting lost in the narrow alleys around Beijing last month because my phone maps kept glitching. Then a local shopkeeper told me to look for the red lanterns outside certain doorways - they mark the main paths through the maze. Walked from Gulou to Nanluoguxiang in 15 minutes flat after that. Anyone else find a weird local trick in China that actually beat the apps?

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1 Comment

evan_stone26d ago

Actually I'd argue that relying on those red lanterns is a good way to end up even more lost. In my experience Beijing's hutongs are full of random decorations for shops or restaurants that look just like the official ones, so you're basically gambling on which lanterns actually mean anything. Your mileage may vary but I found that asking a local for directions or just downloading offline maps before heading out worked way better than trying to decode some mysterious lantern system.