Telephone area codes provide an alternate means of envisioning the United States. And not just for Chinese restaurant workers: there's also Ludicris' Rap Map.

re: buses, cultural worlds, numbers, telephones, transit

Nate:

These two are Chinatown bus advertisements for routes that go to the more obscure regions of the eastern United States. (Chinatown bus goes all over, not just Boston, NYC, Philly and Washington). Notice how they emphasize the area codes.

That is because many Fujianese restaurant workers are not educated and thus don’t really read and write English. Given that. How do you divide the United States? Not through towns and states. You do it through numbers—hence the area codes.