Originally Posted by
richardinmotion
Easy to say when you spend as much time as you do in the country. For a first-timer without mobile GPS, and without an accurate map (the map provided by the hotel was completely worthless), it is the reality.
I have to disagree.
I am hard pressed to think of a major city with a layout that is as simple/logical as Beijing's:
-X axis is Chang'an Jie (it changes names every km or so, but everyone knows it as Chang'an Jie); Line 1 runs underneath Chang'an Jie inside of 4th Ring
-Y axis is comprised of historically significant places
-Tiananmen marks the origin; the large open space across the street from it is Tiananmen Square
-Evenly spaced ring roads centered around the origin
-Almost all roads are straight and N/S or E/W (i.e. diagonals aren't common)
Based on these facts alone, you could draw a functional map on a napkin and would be good to go.