There's also plenty of staff around that can point you in the right direction. Maybe it's just the language barrier. I've never really flown anywhere where I had 0 grasp of the language. Maybe if I arrived in PEK I'd have a major issue with something like this, but if you follow the pictures/flags/signs (which if memory serves are in a few languages) then you should be fine.
Working at YVR I constantly had people asking "where is the US check-in" while standing underneath a sign with a USA flag the word "departures" and an arrow....