Languages / Mandarin / Level 1 · Unit 1

在哪里 — Asking Directions

Lesson 3 of 170 · Level 1 of 6All lessons
In this lesson

You are learning asking directions: you will read the scene it happens in, learn 10 words and phrases, take apart the pattern behind them (在哪里 + direction vocabulary), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.

The scene

The Bund (外滩 Wàitān), Shanghai — the waterfront promenade facing the Pudong skyline. You're looking for a restaurant somewhere on the streets behind it. Shanghai's grid is logical, but the old French Concession streets curve unexpectedly.

外滩后面 — Behind the Bund

The Bund is the easy part — you can't miss it. The restaurant is in a lane house (弄堂) somewhere in the streets behind it, near the old Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building. Lane houses are Shanghai's most beautiful architecture and its most confusing navigation challenge.

The stranger stops a young woman. 「你好!能帮我吗?我在找这个餐厅。」 He shows his phone. She studies it. 「直走,然后右拐,走路差不多五分钟。就在那条弄堂里面。」

He repeats back: 「直走,然后右拐?」 She nods. 「对!」 (Right!)

Seven minutes later, he finds a small wooden door with a barely visible sign. He pushes it open. The restaurant is in a garden courtyard — magnolia trees and white walls and the smell of hongshao rou (red-braised pork). He texts: 「到了!」