how streets are named
Bubbles.town is one of a few cool blog aggregating-type services I’ve found lately. It’s a great way to discover interesting writing from around the world about many topics. Maps Mania is a cool blog I found on Bubbles.town which is, as the name may suggest, about maps. Maps Mania had a post up on 26 August looking at the distribution of numbered streets in US cities – apparently in Chicago, the higher the number, the further south of the city centre; whereas in Denver it’s the opposite. It’s not mentioned in that post, but I do appreciate how streets are numbered in Manhattan, New York. I imagine it makes navigation very easy. It certainly helps finding things on a map.
It’s not the most fascinating topic, I know, but it reminded me of one thing I really love about Beijing: The logic in the city’s layout, and how that also makes navigation easy.
It goes like this: First, accept that Tiananmen is the centre of the universe. Then understand that the city was built on two axes that meet at Tiananmen – Chang’an Jie is the east-west axis, while the north-south axis is the line running from the drum tower in the north through the peak of Jingshan, straight down the centre of the Forbidden City, through Qianmen, and down to Yongdingmen. Then understand that the Second Ring Road follows the course of the old city wall – which also explains why so many (most? all? it’s hard to think of an exception) of the interchanges on the Second Ring Road are named gates. The interchanges are built on the sites of gates in the old city wall. Then remember that the old city, i.e. the city within the Second Ring Road, was divided into 外城/wàichéng/outer city, 内城/nèichéng/inner city, and 紫禁城/zǐjìnchéng/Forbidden City – commoners in the outer city, Manchu nobility (at least, during most of the Qing Dynasty) in the inner city, and the Forbidden City obviously for the imperial family. Short version: Outer city is south of Qianmen; inner city is north of Qianmen and surrounds the Forbidden City; Forbidden City is the Forbidden City.
Got all that? Good, next up is cardinal directions: 东/dōng/east, 南/nán/south, 西/xī/west, 北/běi/north. Add in these two: 内/nèi/inner, inside, within; and 外/wài/outer, outside.
Now, imagine you are standing on a footpath at Jianguomen Qiao, the interchange on the Second Ring Road on what would have been the eastern side of the city way back in the olden days. Of course, the city now stretches many kilometres further east. Maybe you’re a little lost. Look at the street signs: They will have the cardinal directions, so now you have your north, south, east, west. You will also see either nei or wai. Remember that the Second Ring Road is essentially the city wall – nei, or inside, is going to be inside that city wall. Wai will be outside the city wall. In other words, nei is towards Tiananmen while wai is away from Tiananmen.
Extend this out to all the ring roads. Now you know where you are going.