ABSTRACT
Unfortunately, getting legitimate information in China was like getting legitimate Chinese food in America. Public information about anything at all was still simply nonexistent. The country had been too closed for too long, it seemed. A continuing grievance of mine in my travels in China had to do with the lack of even the concept of an information booth or for that matter, city bus map, or any map at all, or anything remotely equivalent to the White or Yellow Pages. Basically, they didn’t exist—a possibly inadvertent but nevertheless effective outcome of information suppression dating back probably to the beginning of Imperial China 4000 years ago. Or at least to the Cultural Revolution. An information what? What’s an information booth? (Even Beijing Airport as of 2005 had no such thing). Booths promoting this service or that were in abundance. But genuine unbiased information was unavailable. For this author, the inevitable problem was this: OK, it’s here, somewhere. But where? And how to get there was always a matter of varied opinion.
