I can't believe I forgot one of the best parts of China -- the foreign words. I think they were so entertaining mostly because of my Japanese experience. See, over here English is adopted unabashedly into the Japanese lexis and converted into syllables easily pronouncable by Japanese standards. For example, Coca Cola becomes: ko-ka-ko-ra, shirt becomes sha-tsu, peach becomes pee-chee and so forth. The alphabet for foreign words, katakana, contians characters that represent sounds but not meanings. In China, however, foreign words -- few and far between -- are assigned characters with meanings and sounds, both of which adhere to the foreign original only slightly. For instance, Coca Cola in Chinese becomes kao-ko-kao-ru (it's vague in my memory, but similar to that . . . ), and the meaning is something to the effect of "laughing mouth bubbles." Some other favorite pronounciations are Kentucky Fried Chicken: kin-jearrrrrkkk-uuy, and MacDonald's: mik-gyyyyy-nods. In truth these pronounciations may be grossly warped as I heard them weeks ago and filtered them through a mind shrouded in 29-hour-train-ride stench, delerium and sleep deprivation. But trust me, they're funny. And by funny, I mean interesting to the western ear. I am not culturally insensitive.