On Chinese Street Food

by Adrienne Wilson on

Go World Travel features a fine culinary travel piece by Larry Jer who after spending months in China decides to risk everything to sample – Chinese street food. We’ve all been tempted on one journey or another to give into the aromas drifting off the grill or pan from some street chef looking to tantalize your taste buds, fuel your stomach as well as make an honest living. Sometimes trying those delicious smelling street treats isn’t as easy as one might think. For Larry having Chinese street food was much like a trip to the circus. I can understand that, but it wasn’t until Larry found he needed to get the weight he’d lost by avoiding most foods in China that he gave in to the street vendors. In addition to developing balls or courage to try the food for weight concerns, he also found gobbling down silkworm added dimension to his stay in China. How about that? Dimension in silkworms? Mmm…

Read the rest for yourself. Foodies can surely appreciate Larry Jer’s very nicely written travel tale.

Chinese Travelers Bad-Mannered?

by Adrienne Wilson on

Before you go bashing the messenger, please read what I’m referring to over at Canada.com. According to their short news piece, China’s tourism authority claims Chinese travelers are uncouth. Of the semi-gross or uncouth habits demonstrated by Chinese travelers, littering would be the one that bothers me more than anything, if true. (Litter bugs are not cool at all!) Spitting, smoking in nonsmoking areas, line-jumping, poor hygiene (not flushing the toilet or covering one’s mouth when sneezing) and walking around shirtless and shoeless in hotels were all common complaints from an online survey on Chinese tourists. Ouch! I’d be pretty hurt with poll results like that and curious to know who took this survey. Up to 100 million Chinese travelers are expected to travel abroad annually by 2020. The survey was carried out in August and plans to improve the manners of Chinese travelers. Whatever that involves I’d hate to be apart of that course.

(P.S. The three individuals in the picture by no means reflect the type of tourist at question. I do not know them. I know not if they sneeze without covering their mouth or litter without a care, but I’m sure they don’t.)

Word for the Travel Wise (08/24/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Since I’ve gone through the first half of the year pointing out Mandarin words I’m switching it up to go through the rest of the year with Cantonese. I started with Mandarin as I was told it is the more widely spoken of the two, but there are still hundreds of thousands of Cantonese speakers out there. I feel I need to recognize some of their words to the best of my ability. Today we start with an easy one.

Today’s word is a Cantonese word used in China:

léui yàu – travel

Cantonese is mainly spoken in southern Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and by Chinese minorities in Southeast Asia. Check out Wiki for a pretty extensive historical look at the lingo. Cantonese Online – A Tribute is a colorful site packed with info which offers a variety of free resources to learning to this spectacular language. If you’d like to learn some street slang as seen in popular Hong Kong movies there is a book for purchase on this site here. Last but not least scope out or pick up the LP pocket-sized guide to keep you talking on the go!

Past Mandarin words: zhu ni hao yun, guo nian ha, mu di di, hao, xiang zi, zai jian

Word for the Travel Wise (06/30/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Another day, week and month has come to an end and I’m as tired as ever. No pointless chatter tonight.

Today’s word is a Mandarin word used in China:

zai jian – bye

Mandarin is the most widely spoken of the Chinese language and can be a bit difficult to learn, but there are many sites online that can help get you started. The best will probably cost a small amount of money and the links are many so for sources pointing to additional sources check out About and Mandarin Tools. Mandarin tools is good if you’d like to add pinyin tools and other Chinese text files to your computer. Zap Chinese is free and has small dictionaries of common words with audio. Mei Wah is an awesome and funny site on becoming more aware as an eater and learning Chinese by way of menus and restaurant signs. China Language online is another excellent site I recently stumbled upon providing info on Mandarin, Cantonese and Hakka. In addition to these past recommendations check out the Hong Kong Language Learning Center (HKLLC) for study abroad in Hong Kong or Beijing. Qi Journal has a section dedicated to Chinese culture and language study.

Past Mandarin words: zhu ni hao yun, guo nian ha, mu di di, hao, xiang zi