Beijing Welcomes You bĕi jīng huān yíng nǐ (北京欢迎你)

Do you know how to sing this song "北京欢迎你 bĕi jīng huān yíng nǐ / Beijing Welcomes You" made famous by the Beijing Olympics 2008?

This karaoke video has the song lyrics written in pin yin (without accents) and an English translation for you to sing along to: 

Whenever you enter a shop in China, you'd be greeted with:

"欢 迎 光 临 huān yíng guāng lín", which literally means, "Welcome, the light has arrived."

It took me a LONGGGGGG time to catch the last two words guāng lín 光 临 because they don't sound like anything I've ever heard. Then again, I don't speak Mandarin.

Now that I know a classic Chinese poem - Jìng yè sī (静夜思) by Lǐ Bái (李白), the words "guāng lín" 光 临 has some meaning.

Here's the original music video (with Korean translations):

 
The only equivalent I can find in the English language is that famous song by the Beatles: "Here Comes The Sun" where a person's arrival brings them as much joy as the arrival of the bright and warm sun shining after a cold, long winter.

"Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right"

Get it? :D

Lesson 1: shì chǎng (市场) and shí táng (食堂)

chéng shì (城市) means "city"

e.g. Běijīng shì 北京市

Shànghǎi chéngshì 上海城市

Wǔhàn chéngshì 武汉城市

shì chǎng (市场) is "market".

shí táng (食堂) is actually a "dining hall".

I thought that 2 of these words were somehow related due to the "shi".

Now, I realize that "city" begins with the fourth sound while "dining hall" begins with the second sound.

Bao zhi (newspaper) vs bao zi (steamed buns)

One day, I made an appointment with a Chinese-speaking friend who agreed to meet me at the intersection of a busy street.

Since I had to find a landmark that:

a) I could tell her in Mandarin and
 b) she could easily identify, I decided on the news agent, which is a big, square stand that sticks out among the crowd.

Feeling pleased with myself, I told her: “Wo zai mai bao zi de dian qian mian den ni, hao bu hao? (I’ll wait for you outside the news agent, ok?)”

She said, “Mai bao zi? Hao! Zai jian!”

We both hung up and I happily waited for her. I saw her approaching me but she appeared not to see me waiting for her because she was furtively looking right and left. Then, I saw her pick up her phone - she was calling me.

I waved both arms to her before she could start dialing. She saw me and crossed the road quickly. I asked her why she was looking for me when I was standing right next to the news agent.

She said, “Wo zai zhao mai bao zi keshi wo zhao bu dao ah…”

I looked puzzled and pointed to the news agent on my left. “Zhe ge bu shi mai bao zi ma?”

She looked at the news agent with big eyes and then it dawned on her that this silly cow meant “newspaper” and not “steamed buns”.

“bào zhǐ! (报 纸 - newspaper) (jaw clenched tightly, lips curled for emphasis)
Bu shi bāo zǐ (包 子 - steamed buns) (smiling without clenched jaw)”.

Oops!!! I apologized profusely to her but she laughed it off because she had been looking all around for steamed dumplings while I meant a boring newspaper stand all along LOL