Places Around Town Flashcards

Practise 24 words with a matching picture on every card. Plan an afternoon in town in Chinese: where you would go first, where you would send a parcel or change money, and where you would relax afterwards. Try saying each word before checking the pinyin. Save unfamiliar words, use New shuffle for another recall round, then use the names with the taxi phrases — telling a driver the place is half of every ride.

Four words for the town itself, five public services, seven places to spend free time, three for going out, two places of worship and three places of work make this 24-card selection. Buildings are told apart by the one emblem each carries, never by a written sign: a coin on the bank's pediment and scales on the court's, an envelope and a mailbox at the post office, a badge and a light at the police station, two flags at the embassy, a bed sign on the hotel and full shelves in the bookstore window. A company is its tall building with people outside; an office is a desk inside with the city through the window. This deck teaches what places are called; where they are — left, right, opposite — belongs in a directions deck. The library is practised in the School deck, shops and markets in the Shopping deck, stations and the airport in the Transport deck, and hospitals and pharmacies are kept for a health deck.

• Tell a taxi driver where to go
• Choose how to get there
• Name the shops and markets
• Explore the Chinese travel phrasebook
• Review your saved place words
• Choose another flashcard deck

Think you know them? The Chinese Picture Quiz says a word and shows it in characters, and you tap its picture — these cards mixed with every other picture deck.

Looking for graded vocabulary instead? The HSK flashcards run levels 1 to 6, and the HSK word lists have the full 5,000.