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Wednesday, March 6, 2019

An Apparent Mismatch for a Name: Mini Jumbo Wuzhou Buses in Guangxi, China

Hong Kong formally names its minibuses, like the one which appeared in the previous post, "public light buses". Wuzhou, a city in the Chinese autonomous region Guangxi, also has minibuses. But instead of "public light bus" they have another name on them.

mini Jumbo Wuzhou Bus (梧州珍宝巴士)


The "Wuzhou" and "Bus" parts of the name "Jumbo Wuzhou Bus" make obvious sense. "Jumbo" is less clear, though, since these are minibuses. If that is the jumbo size then what's the mini size?

A larger bus can help begin to clear up the mystery.

full-sized Jumbo Wuzhou Bus


They have the same name on them, which is the name of a bus company. This is clearly stated in smaller Chinese print elsewhere on the buses.

Jumbo Wuzhou Bus logo


Like buses in Hong Kong, some buses have advertising.

full-sized Jumbo Wuzhou Bus with advertising


However, you won't see advertising quite like what's on the minibus in the previous post. Hongkongers have greater political rights and more freedom of speech than people in mainland China. The "Tell Right From Wrong, True From False" slogan was part of a campaign for the Labor Party's attempt to win a 2018 Kowloon West by-election. But China still limits Hongkongers' rights to a degree that leads some people to claim Hong Kong doesn't have real democracy. These limitations were evident in Kowloon West election when the Labor Party's original candidate, Lau Siu-lai, was barred from running due to her previous stances regarding Hong Kong's self-determination.

Back to more mundane matters . . . in Wuzhou there are buses in between the mini Jumbo Wuzhou Bus and the regular-sized Jumbo Wuzhou Bus in terms of size. So here are two mini-plus Jumbo Wuzhou Buses:

two mid-sized Jumbo Wuzhou Buses


The word "珍宝" in the Chinese name for Jumbo Wuzhou Bus would often be translated as "treasure". But it is also a loanword in Cantonese meaning "jumbo" because of its similar sound to the English word. Like in Hong Kong, Cantonese is a commonly spoken language in Wuzhou.

I can't shed more light on what inspired the choice of "jumbo". But if you want to dig more, it might be worth looking into the Guangzhou buses with a similar name and logo.

Monday, February 25, 2019

Trump's Tweets in the Hong Kong News

Tonight on the news as I waited for a ferry tonight in Hong Kong:


Donald Trump on the news in Hong Kong


A tweet by Donald Trump featured in the news in Hong Kong


A tweet by Donald Trump featured in the news in Hong Kong


China and US flags displayed on a news segment about the China - US trade discussions


Just a basic point that is part of a larger picture: Trump's tweets receive close attention, even here.

Friday, February 22, 2019

An Unexpected Visit to the Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre in Hong Kong

I hadn't expected to arrive in Prince Edwards, Hong Kong, at 11:30 a.m. yesterday.

Oh, the location was expected. But the time was not since I had departed Jiangmen only 3.5 hours before, and a similar recent trip from a closer location, Zhongshan, had taken longer. Arriving earlier than expected was grand though.

I had expected to stop by the Mongkok Computer Centre yesterday afternoon. I had also expected during this visit I wouldn't be able to fully resolve the problem which had brought me there. But I hadn't expected that after some assistance, I would head to Kowloon Bay.

And I hadn't expected that yesterday I would find myself at the Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre.

Sign for the Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre


Some readers must be wondering if the Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre is a fine building. It is.

Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong


After entering the building, I hadn't expected that finding a way to the upper levels would be slightly tricky. Here is a later photo I took which which I believe captures somebody receiving friendly assistance to reach those levels:

ground floor of the Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre


After finding the elevator and exiting it on the 2nd floor (what would be labeled the 3rd floor in the U.S.), I hadn't expected to see no signs of my intended destination. So I picked a direction and found myself in a distribution centre for Circle K, a convenience store chain.

Circle K distribution centre in the Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre


Soon a person who hadn't expected me to be in the Circle K distribution centre explained (hollered) that I shouldn't be there. Then an older man who presumably wasn't surprised to see yet another person in the wrong place immediately guessed my intended destination and directed me there.

Thank you, sir.

Shortly after that, I found my destination.

Vcare location in the Sunshine Kowloon Bay Cargo Centre


When I left Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year holiday I hadn't expected to return so soon. I also hadn't expected that I would have significant problems with an external hard drive I had bought there. I had expected that having discarded the box would make resolving the problem more challenging. It did, but I hadn't expected that things would go as smoothly as they did nonetheless.

In short, the external hard drive I had bought has been replaced. As soon as I feel reasonably confident all is OK with it, I will be heading out of Hong Kong once more. While I wish the drive I had bought before had lived a long life, at least the experience of replacing it afforded opportunities to open my eyes to new things.

More about some of those things and also the new travel options in and out of Hong Kong someday.

I expect.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

A Gymnasium in Jiangmen

The other day during a long walk through the Baishuidai Scenic Area in Jiangmen I passed the Guangdong Nanfang Institute of Technology (广东南方职业学院). I see indications the school's English name used to be the Guangdong Nanfang (or Southern) Vocational School, which would be consistent with its Chinese name, but I will stick with what appears on their website. Whatever its English name, the architecture of one of its building particularly stood out.

Gymnasium at the Guangdong Nanfang Institute of Technology (广东南方职业学院室内体育馆)


On a page of photos of various buildings and locations at the campus, I discovered it was an indoor gymnasium. I don't expect to have much more to share about the school as I didn't stay around for long. But I do hope to share more about the scenic area another day. 

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Shakespeare and Chinese Fashion: Wearing Your Heart On Your Sleeve in Jiangmen, Not in Venice

O, sir, content you;
I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd:
Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them and when they have lined
their coats
Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;
And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
or when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

– Iago in William Shakespeare's Othello, Act 1, Scene 1*


shirt with "Sorry" printed on the front and "I am not" on the right sleeve
For sale at Diwang Plaza in Jiangmen, China




* See here or here for translations into modern English of this scene where Iago explains he hides his negative feelings toward his master in order to better take advantage of him.

Monday, February 18, 2019

Passing Up the One-Night Stand in Jiangmen: Creative Names and a Taste of Demolition of Cheese River Powder at Yes Cuisine

Yes Cuisine (YES茶餐厅) at Diwang Plaza (地王廣場) in Jiangmen (江門)
Yes Cuisine at Diwang Plaza in Jiangmen



So many questions . . .

Should I leap at the opportunity?
Would I regret doing so the next morning?

Pan-fried one-night stand (香煎一夜情) in the Yes Cuisine (YES茶餐厅) menu


In the end, I decided to take a pass on the pan-fried one-night stand at the Hong Kong-style restaurant Yes Cuisine (YES茶餐厅), and narrowed the options to two recommended dishes.

Demolition of cheese river power (拆燒芝士河粉) and Bizarre (比翼脆雙飛) in Yes Cuisine Menu


Choosing between demolition of cheese river power and bizarre was not easy, but I finally settled on the former. So I raised my hand to get the attention of a restaurant worker. He smiled warmly at me, waved, and then went on his merry way.

Something important was missing.

After recovering from the unexpected yet entertaining response and becoming convinced nothing further was going to result from it, I tried again with another worker. She wasn't as cheerful, but she immediately recognized I was ready to order. Excellent.

Everything was efficient after that, and I soon had a hot plate of demolition of cheese river powder.

Demolition of cheese river powder at YES Cuisine
Today's noodly lunch


If by "demolition" they meant at a molecular level then they were spot on. Either there was very little cheese to begin with or most of it had decomposed into something not very cheesy. I have had similar experiences with cheese in China before. I'm not sure all of it was really cheese. In any case, if this dish had been topped with more or better quality cheese, I might be a fan.

But at least the taste was passably pleasant, and I finished most of the dish. I only left some of the noodles due to being full enough. For what it is worth, a misguided literal character by character translation of the Chinese word for a wide type of noodles — "河粉" — gives rise to "river powder".

As far as the fish dish, I'd say "pan-fried one-night stand" is actually a good translation of the Chinese — "香煎一夜情". According to recipes for similar dishes, the witty name comes from the fact that the fish is marinated for one night.

For the translation of "比翼脆雙飛" into "bizarre", I am not sure what happened there. It is worth noting that this translation is the first result provided by Google Translate. Baidu Translate's result of "flying brittle with two wings" strikes me as closer to the mark. I will leave it up to the professionals to decide what would work best here.

More than noodle dishes or cheese, I would say the thing to take away from this restaurant is that, yes, there are plenty examples of translation gone wrong on menus in China, even including fried enemas. But that perplexing or entertaining name you see might be a good translation of a name that is creative in Chinese as well.

So don't let an unusual name alone scare you away from a one-night stand, whether pan-fried or steamed.

Sunday, February 17, 2019

A Little Red App, Li Rui's Death, Lots of Debt, and Forced Pork: Four China-Themed Tweets With Links

Here are four tweet with links to pieces very much worth checking out if you haven't already:




Thursday, February 14, 2019

Two Valentine's Day Sellers in Jiangmen

I believe it is February 14, which in parts of the world is Valentine's Day.

Tonight on Shengli Road in Jiangmen, I passed two nearby places where people could buy last minute flowers.

selling roses on Valentine's Day in Jiangmen, China



selling flowers on Valentine's Day in Jiangmen, China


The second photo captures intense bargaining. Perhaps some people would prefer their love to pay whatever it takes to get some flowers. In this case, tag team action between the couple sought a better price.

Well played.