As expected, Beijing has provided a cornucopia of amusing translations.
For instance: if you're feeling peckish and are in the Weigoncgun area, why not sample the delicious concoctions of "Grandma Skitchen"? But if you're not so adventurous, there's almost always a "California Beef King Noodle USA" nearby. (If you get the Mao Combo, be sure to get it Great Wall-sized. My friend B points out that you can try ordering the Tiananmen Square Meal, but they will deny it's on the menu.)
Worried about knowing how to order? You're in luck; every restaurant we've been to (including the ones far from the city centre and tourist attractions) has had large pictures of each item and an English description.
If you want something exciting and unpredictable, try "the palace explodes the shrimp ball". But if you're looking for something more spartan, go for the "pigeon egg abalone gruel". If you can handle a bit of kick, definitely choose "spiced donkey steak", and if you want to kick it up a notch, challenge yourself with "the fierce appearance point pepper burns the large intestine". Starving? The "deep-fried balls with sauce" are nice and filling (Andrew is a big fan of the slightly less savory "ball soup"). We're not quite sure what to make of the "sauteed rape with egg and fungus", but it's probably best avoided, especially at Grandma Skitchen's.
All street names and bus stops and the like have English phoneticizations. Usually they are great, but some are unpronounceable, as is the case with the name of what I think is a new housing development: "CHUANGJIANQUANGUOWENMINGCHENGQU ZHANZHIZICHENGMEIHAOXINGXIANG"
Shirts with English words are extremely popular. They range from hilarious to profound. My favourite: "If you were your own secret admirer, what would you admire?" Andrew enjoyed: "More Respect, Less Questions". A shirt with "1970's" didn't seem all that strange; it was a pretty cool decade I guess. But an identical shirt, this time with "1930's" was a little more difficult to understand.
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