Sep '0921
While in China, we talked about “Chinglish”, the Chinese English that sometimes is a little bit hard to understand and can be very funny sometimes. We already published a fine example of English translation “free style” and while going through our pictures recently, we found a few more examples, that we really think deserve to be shown to the world as they are highly intriguing, creative and most of the time hilarious. 
Poor Grass! Luckily they have a nice sign to protect them! 
The picture below (sorry for the quality) definitely shows one of the finest examples of Chinglish we encountered, a restaurant named “Hong Kong succeeds the sign powder gruel aristocratic family” at Guilin. We think that even Google would have translated this better!! But then, in China access to Google is forbidden. That maybe explains some things.
No idea what those words all together mean!
And thinking about it, we are actually quite happy that they don’t have any access to translator-services like Google, if not, we would not have been seeing the translation on the following picture, seen on a menu of a restaurant in Chengdu:
Unfortunately they ran out of “Strange Flavor Noodles” so we didn’t get a chance to try them. Too bad!
Vera & Jean-Christophe
Feb '0901
Arrogance:
“The act or habit of arrogating, or making undue claims in an overbearing manner; that species of pride which consists in exorbitant claims of rank, dignity, estimation, or power, or which exalts the worth or importance of the person to an undue degree; proud contempt of others; lordliness; haughtiness; self-assumption; presumption.”
Source: Wiktionary
Arrogant advertisement with potential
Vera & Jean-Christophe
For a related article on Chinglish, see our first impressions on China.
Nov '0701
China hasn’t been our favorite country so far, which is partially due to the fact that we had bad weather in the north and the fact that we couldn’t get into Tibet even though we tried so hard. But it’s not very fair to judge it so easily, as China definitely has some “worth seeing” sites, although it is sometimes just a little bit hard to find them. But that’s part of the adventure!
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Oct '0719
Some people complained that we hadn’t been very courageous as far as our food choices are concerned. It is true that China is probably one of the countries with the most “exotic” food possibilities going from very spartian cuisine in the north, very spicy in the west until eating cat, rats and bugs glued to a stick in the south. But lately we had an experience that will keep everybody’s mouth open, including the people that think we aren’t courageous (we will see how courageous you get ).
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Oct '0712
Beijing, September 17th: After standing in a long, long waiting-line at the PSB (Police Security Bureau, the place where visa extensions are issued) we get to hear that our visa cannot be extended now. Period (no real reason given, as will turn out to be the “standard” in China). The only information we get is: “You can do it in Xi’an.”
Loss: half day of searching the office, waiting and wondering.
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Oct '0703
Now that we have been in China for a little while, we can maybe speak a little bit about the Chinese, because they are actually quite different from the people we met in Russia and China. Whereas the Russians were still very European and the Mongolians “Mongolian” (we don’t really know how to describe them but we agree that they are not European, but also not Asian), the Chinese are something different, something peculiar in their own kind.
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Sep '0727
Going on the Great Wall is always an experience as it is incredible to imagine that this immense wall has been built hundreds of years ago, like a snake sliding through the mountains in order to protect the Chinese empire against foreign invaders (especially the Mongols). It is even more incredible that this wall has never served its initial purpose of defense, because by the time it was finally consolidated the Mongol Empire had already declined.
And although it is slowly falling down (a little bit helped by poor locals using the stones for construction elsewhere) there are still big parts standing that are protected, partially renovated and thus can be visited by paying a very expensive “relic protection and cultural heritage protection” price (freely translated as “extremely high for foreign tourists” price).
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Sep '0725
Probably the best way to visit Beijing is by bike. At least compared to buses (continuously stuck in traffic jams) or by foot (by foot??? Do you have any idea how big this city is???). And as Beijing is flat like Holland it is not too hard neither. So for 3 days we rented some high-tech made-in-China bikes to explore the city and really merge with the locals joining the bicycle-buzz visiting among others the Summer Palace, the Ancient Observatory and the Lama Temple.
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