Why 东南西北 East, South, West, North in Chinese?
In the Chinese language, we do not call the directions literally as North, South, East, West but East, South, West, North which is 东 南 西北 Dōng Nán Xī Běi. Even the Chinese tile-based game, Mahjong, uses the four directions 东 南 西 北 as one of its rules.
The four diagonal directions (Inter-cardinal or Ordinal) are North-East (NE), South-East (SE), South-West (SW), and North-West (NW). The table will give you the exact directions in Chinese.
The translation of the inter-cardinal points in English is the opposite direction in Mandarin. Eg. North-East in English would read as East-North 东北 Dōngběi in Chinese and South-East in English would be East-South 东南 Dōngnán. Very confusing. I know.
