Originally Posted by moondog

I don't think you need to bother with note cards because downtown Changsha is pretty easy to figure out on your own, ordering noodles is not rocket science whether or not English menus are available, and your hotel people should be able to give you some good ideas. In short, there's no need to stress about this.

@110pgl: "Mandarin" refers to a spoken dialect, "Chinese" is the term to use when discussing the written language.