Beijing Taxi Guide To Aid Olympic Visitors

April 2, 2008 - PRLog -- With the Beijing Olympics coming up in just a few months, one challenge for non-Chinese speaking visitors to Beijing is simply getting around the city.  As a recent Reuters China blog post on getting around by taxi illustrated, Beijing can be a difficult and frustrating city to navigate, especially for newcomers.  

Despite a government initiative to improve taxi drivers’ English, little to no English remains the norm.  Street numbers are meaningless.  Places are sometimes identified by obscure names that haven’t been in use for the last few hundred years.  Even taxi drivers themselves may not be all that familiar with the city.

To help residents and tourists not get lost taking taxis in Beijing, Immersion Guides has recently released the Beijing Taxi Guide.  

The motivation behind the project was to simplify the process of getting from one place to another in Beijing.  Project Manager Jackie Yu said, “As a local Beijinger, even I find it pretty hard getting to some places that I’m not familiar with.  So we decided to produce a taxi guide in order to help people navigating the city.”

Small enough to fit inside a pocket or purse, this bilingual guide includes over 400 key venues.  Not only are major tourist sites and Olympic venues featured, but important places such as embassies, hospitals, restaurants, shopping centers and more are included as well.

Written in both English and Chinese, the Beijing Taxi Guide also includes venues, maps, tips and practical phrases for dealing with a taxi driver.  

But the most useful part of the book may be the directions, which no other taxi guide provides.  

“There are lots of different similar publications. However, none of them provide detailed directions to certain places, which is the biggest disadvantage,” noted Yu. “We hope that people would like to use it and more importantly, get the most out of Beijing.”

Available in shops around Beijing and online at http://www.immersionguides.com, the Beijing Taxi Guide is out now and ready to take Olympic visitors where they need to go.


Beijing Taxi Guide      
by Immersion Guides    
ISBN: 978-7-80202-882-1    
Price: RMB 50 / USD 9.95    
Release Date: April 2008  
Immersion Guides

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Immersion Guides is Beijing‘s leading publisher of English-language guidebooks and maps.

Comprehensive resources for visitors and residents with curiosity to burn, Immersion Guides publications transcend the scope of a typical tourist guidebook, taking a nuanced, in-depth, local approach.

For more information, please visit http://www.immersionguides.com