October 1 is China’s National Day or 国庆节 (guó qìng jié). The whole of China will be out on holiday from tomorrow until next Friday!!! I had a bit of trouble getting home today because the buses were PACKED, the streets were CROWDED and the roads were JAMMED. Boy, was it a long trek home… [...]
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Once in a while, I need to get myself a hamburger fix and that’s when I head for Burger King or hàn bǎo wáng (汉堡 王), which literally means “hambuger king”. Remember to say this to the taxi driver instead of “Burger King! Burger King, don’t you know Bur-ger King?” Among the various fast food [...]
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I love a hot breakfast but it’s usually not convenient for me to buy zhōu (粥) or xī fàn (稀饭) also known as congee, gruel or porridge in the English-speaking world because I’m always in a rush nowadays. For a while, I packed sandwiches to work because I’m so hungry by the time I reach [...]
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Mid-Autumn festival is quite a big celebration in China – Monday is a public holiday My students couldn’t wait to get on the bus, the train or the airplane to head home for a family reunion on Mid-Autumn Day or zhōng qiū jié (中秋节). According to them, they would have a big dinner with their [...]
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Oh my God, I’ve just discovered that tortoise is wū guī (乌龟) and one of my favourite desserts, the guīlínggāo (龟苓膏) is actually “tortoise jelly!” Looking at these cute little tortoise on sale at the supermarket, I feel so sorry that I have ever, ever eaten the turtle jelly. I really didn’t know that they [...]
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I am not a fan of cold dishes but the one exception is the “drunken chicken”, which for me, is like an alternative to my favourite Hainan chicken rice. The first time I tasted the “drunken chicken” (醉鸡), I was surprised that it was cold! Haha, this is a clear example of how little experience [...]
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After moving to China, I have become an expert shopper. Seriously because it’s been soooooo difficult for me to find basic items for myself, I am now armed with practically all the numbers that I need to get what I want. For example, I now know that I need to look for underwear that would [...]
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Since we cook and eat Chinese food almost every day, we tend to go for other types of food when we dine out or when it’s someone’s birthday. If you don’t know by now, Chinese is an incredibly literal, simple and straightforward language. Yet, it’s such a versatile language that some Chinese phrases (in fact, [...]
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