Chinese Directions: Find Your Way With 东南西北, Position and Location Words

To be honest, asking for directions when learning Chinese is terrifying... You’re already a bit turned around, your phone’s data might be shaky, and now you have to form a coherent question? I’ve been there—staring at a map in Shanghai, the characters swimming before my eyes. Here’s something I’ve learned: it’s less about memorizing a huge list and more about understanding the simple phrases and grammar that hold it all together. Let’s break it down.

Master the core compass directions in Chinese: 东南西北

Before you can follow any path, you need to know your north from your south.

In Chinese, the cardinal points are your anchor, and they’re refreshingly simple to remember. Think of a map: (North) is at the top, (South) at the bottom, (East) on the right, and (West) on the left.

To form any intermediate direction, you just combine them, always starting with east or west first.

See the pattern? You’ll hear these combined cardinal directions constantly, especially in city names like (“Northern Capital”) and (“East of the Mountains”).

They’re also baked into everyday language for describing locations. A shop might be on the – the north side of the road. Your friend might live in the – the southern part of the city. Getting these down cold is your non-negotiable first step.

Your easy "compass": How people give directions without 东西南北

Alright, let's talk about the on-the-spot lifesavers: for left, for right, and for straight.

When you're in the thick of it — maybe in a bustling night market or a maze-like subway station — whipping out the compass points can feel like overkill. This is where these three words become your best friends. They're the quick, relative adjustments you need.

You'll hear them in their simplest, most powerful form:

A local might point and say, "" (Turn left here), and that's all the information you need. It’s immediate, intuitive, and cuts through the complexity.

The sentence patterns of movement: How to ask for directions in Mandarin

Now, knowing the words isn’t enough. You need the glue — the simple grammar — to make them work. The good news is, asking for directions in Chinese is wonderfully formulaic. You don’t need complex sentences.

Simple, right? But to understand the answer, you need the key prepositions of movement. The big ones are (Toward) and (From).

You’ll hear patterns like: 。 (Walk toward the north.) Or, 。 (From here, go straight.)

The verb means “to walk,” and is “straight.” So, a full, very common instruction might be:
。
Go straight from here, then turn east.

Landmarks over addresses when natives give directions in Chinese

Here’s something crucial that tripped me up for ages: in many Chinese cities, people navigate by landmarks, not street addresses.

We should address this cultural elephant of Chinese language in the room. An address might get a taxi driver close, but to find a specific small restaurant or shop, you’ll need to listen for the landmarks. This is actually a gift—it’s visual and concrete.

So, you’ll need vocabulary for these reference points. Listen for words like:

Directions will often stitch these together. A typical answer might be:

You’ll love how this changes your perception. You stop looking for numbers and start seeing the city as a network of recognizable nodes.

It’s practical, it’s visual, and it works. If you’re the type of person who learns by doing, you’ll pick this up quickly just by paying attention to the answers you get. The truth is, embracing this landmark-based system is the key to moving from textbook Chinese to the living, breathing directions used on the street.

Straightforward tips for learning Chinese directions

FAQs

Are compass directions that important?

While people in the north and of a middle to older age tend to use compass directions as key phrases, most of the young people or natives from the south are not that clear about the compass directions. They tend to describe routes in directional words like left, right, and straight, together with landmarks instead. If you go through Chinese media, there are plenty of examples of how natives talk to each other in simple position and location words and phrases.

Just say you don't know , and the locals will switch to relative directions for you!