I have often lamented the lack of a Phone Book in China. Recently, the results of a survey of Chinese surnames was published and perhaps it shows us why it might be pointless having White Pages here. Most of the Chinese population share 200 surnames and the top three are each used by about 70 million people. It makes the Smiths seem like a minority, eh? I don’t understand why there is no Yellow Pages readily available. In some cities, they exist but are prohibitively expensive and do not come free with the phone service. They are also hard to find, being a little like glasses – you need them to find them. When I have needed to buy a particular thing, or needed to find someone with the skills to do something for me, repair a virus stricken computer, for example, I have usually been limited to asking someone if they know where I should go. This is the way most Chinese find things in big cities. An online search can be helpful but not every business has a website. Of course if I had managed to learn Chinese it would have been better as maybe I could have spotted useful shops as I travelled around and memorized the locations. I always have a friend to help me in these situations. What I don’t understand is why a nation that has equipped itself so well technologically has not set up such a basic and useful service online. On paper it would perhaps be impossible but we are now in the digital age. The best answer I have received from a Chinese person when I have expressed my dismay at this situation is that businesses open and close so quickly that there is little point in having a directory service that would never be up-to-date. It’s true, one has no guarantee that a shop that was open yesterday will be open tomorrow. An online directory which auto deletes if a phone service is cancelled is the only answer. It could easily handle that situation. There has got to be a profit in it for someone because Chinese businesses are crazy about advertising. Just look at their websites (but watch out for spyware).