Vocab Tour - Street Food Buffet

Nicely done CP

This stretch of street food vendors is located right outside the front gate of the university where 娇杰 (Jiāojié) and I both went to grad school: 华东师范大学 (Huádōng Shīfàn Dàxué). I picked the music too. This one is my favorite so far... :)

Mmmmm, CPod has me hungry again.  That 肉夹馍 ròujiāmó looks yummy.

Another great video guys!

Nice pick on the music, John!

The little guy by the 鸡蛋真可爱.

This may be a crazy suggestion, but would it be possible to do a video to show us techie stuff?  For example, I put my iphone into chinese but I have to look up almost all the characters to figure out what is what. Would be kind of neat to navigate a computer or gadget to see what commands are what.  Just a thought. Actually, a PDF will all those translations would be better, I think.

I closed Firefox, and restarted it again, and it seems to work for me now.  So I guess the problem was on my side...

good video.  I think it works because

• it's all nouns, and all food. I think if the video had the title, "Street scene", and we had been queued to look for anything, then it would have been unclear what was being pointed at.
• It also helped that the foods in question were big enough in size so that when they were pointed to, it was clear that it was food.
• it also helped that you guys slowed things down. 

Not that cpod wasn't taking these actions before, but it seemed to work better this time. At least its clearer what the video's intent is without verbs, as there were in the hair salon video. BTW, it might bear repeating that I enjoyed that, and the other videos. 

I forget who suggested it earlier, but cpod should definitely go through the cpod offices and point at desks, chairs, lamps, the building itself. Potentially unclear, but I know we'd love to see cpod's offices.

I know I've said this before, but I love these videos. 

JP had done a video about some street food that I think I saw in this one (when you show 鸡蛋), but it wasn't one of the vocab words.  I think it was called jian1 bing4; is that right?

By the way, when you do things like talk about 肉夹馍 in 请问 and then feature it again in a lesson or video that isn't directly related, that really helps me retain it.

John,

The music - is that The Go Team?

I am definitely getting a 肉夹馍 (ròujiāmó) for lunch today.  yum.

Is there more than one name for 肉家摸? I was also wondering about the music.

Interesting ones are 羊肉串兒，涼皮and the 肉夾饃 looks so yummy with the toasted pita :)  

how much do they cost?

肉夾饃 sounds like a transliteration of Roger Moore :)

ah wo da cuo le. haha.

are there characters for "mmmmm" in chinese??

哈哈哈！

love the vid cpod...nice shots of jenny and john and the music rocks as usual...

hi ewong,

肉夹馍 (ròujiāmó) is generally in the range of 3 to 6 kuai each.

You can't help but feeling invigorated by the sheer energy of the vendors, the street, the passers by that make up this chaotic yet magical country. The entrepreneurialship common in many Chinese is so obvious and vividly captured in the video. With their wok tossing and gas flame, these vendors certainly help make life flaovorful in Shanghai.

yummmm....Chinese hamburgers.....rou jia mou......lai liang ge!

Hi all,

Thank you very much for your videos cpod.. Love them! I learn a lot!

I would like to make a suggestion. I want to know what other cpodies think.  I have been watching many Chinese movies that are available here (usa).  I just received my copy of the movie "Liu San Jie".  I love this movie because now I know that Chinese opera is not just screeching to my ears. :-) I am a big fan of Chinese opera now. Is there any interest in forming a mailing list on chinese movies? I found that "Liu San Jie" was subtitled in zhong wen. It was very helpful. Would anyone else like to share movies that they have found in zhong wen. I know most of the movies are wu shu. I am sure there are others. Just my thoughts.  Cpod help.

Could you beam some 肉夹馍 over? I am hungry now thanks to you guys

:o

I am loving the song! You guys have great taste on the tunes. Please tell me who plays it.

As for the video. Useful, I know what I'll be eating this weekend. Not in one go of course :S

有那麼多好吃的東西﹗我們廣東人會說﹕睇到流口水。

用普通話應該是怎麼說呢﹖

wchan

  The street food doesn't make my mouth water, it makes me want to have a beer! I think what is very hard for CPoddies who have never been to Mainland China or Taiwan to appreciate is the convenience and how good so much of this food is. Piping hot and as Jenny said all the hustle and activity in the area when you have food being cooked.

  When I lived in Taiwan I ate street food almost every day and what was nice was there were tables and chairs along with a frig where you went and got your beer yourself.

 TGIF

scottyb,

The song is indeed by The Go! Team. It's called Huddle Formation.

Ah, scary-looking sausage on a stick, I had forgotten about that.

Amber,

Those 饼 bǐng look pretty good.How do you say maple syrup [and make sure it is the real deal ,and not that maple flavoured stuff ] in Mandarin ? I'm guessing some transliteration is involved with the maple part.How available is maple syrup in China,and what do the locals usually have on their pancakes? On my visit to Vancouver last year I made sure I got some of the real stuff.Delicious.

hi bababardwan,

纯枫液 (chún fēngyè)  pure maple syrup

I've seen it in the import shops here in Shanghai, but of course it's pretty expensive.  Yum, though...

whoa,that was quick ! So you guys can read these posts within the 15minute edit time.Gee,you're working back on a Friday arvo;very impressive.I was obviously wrong about the transliteration then;go figure.Have a good weekend.Thanks Amber.

hey Amber you said it was gonna be Connie this week.....

not knockin' John and Jenny.... :)

thanks CPOD team

another winner guys!!

Here the video indeed makes much sense (besides enjoying to watch the attractive CPod podcasters).

This simply cannot be transported with pure-audio. It is a must to watch this together with the Street Food lesson.

Thanks for this video - appreciated.

Now, can someone tell me what is the real price of these delicacies?

Now, why was I told that wonton came from 云吞 meaning swallowing of clouds, since swallowing the delicate texture of wonton was like swallowing clouds? 馄饨 translates into dumpling-dumpling which makes much more sense.

BTW, 凉皮 looks a lot like the 点心 called 肠粉 (in HK)  or the 小吃 called 猪肠粉 (in Malaysia). Mmmm...fantasising of having that for breakfast...

@Scotty B

Thanks for letting me know what the tune was I didn't see your post at the beginning and thanks John for confirming it.

Pinkjeans, I had the same impression. I got the impression from this book, Swallowing Clouds. The decription of the book on Amazon begins, "Wonton, which transliterates in Chinese as "swallowing clouds," gives title to this delightful mix of Chinese etymology, cooking, and culture..."

I never bothered to analyze the claim, but now that I look at it, it does not seem to be correct. Maybe 雲吞/云吞 really is the Cantonese term.

edit: I think that's almost certainly it. The Cantonese pronunciation of 云吞 is wan4tan1.

... yup. Here's the reference.

i reckon a couple of good mnemonics for these are

烧烤 - sounds like charcoal

and

肉夹馍  - think of Roger Moore eating a doner kebab

It is a good thing I was eating while watching this.  Now I know what I want to eat when I visit China! mmmmm

@ScottyB:

I think the food you're referring to is called 鸡蛋饼 (ji1dan4bing3). Can someone confirm this? 

Definitely another FANTASTIC lesson. I'm accustomed to seeing street food, but xiaolongbao?! You guys are SO lucky! :D

Amber wrote, "generally in the range of 3 to 6 kuai each."

I have a (tangentially related) question. :) When did kuai4 start coming into use? Actual Chinese currency is Ren2min2bi4, but the unit is a yuan2. Growing up in the US, knowing that the units of Chinese money are "yuan"s, I always just thought that "kuai4" referred to American dollars. But the Chinese term for American currency is Mei2Yuan2? And the Chinese term for Euro is Ou1Bi4? When did the yuan/kaui switch come about? Is there an existing lesson someone can recommend that explains the nuances of these kaui/yuan/bi terms?

Thanks, all. :)

I've started creating vocabulary .txt files for these videos, so that I can import them into ZDT and PlecoDict. 

I thought I'd share them if anyone is interested (just right-click the links below and "Save Link As").  I'll keep posting them for each video lesson.  Enjoy!

ZDT

Pleco (Traditional)
Pleco (Simplified)

What's the difference between 锅贴 (guōtiē) and 饺子(jiǎozi)?  Aren't they the same thing, that is, meat filled dumplings that are pan - fried?

小笼包 - xiǎolóngbāo

I assume this is the generic term for small buns.. but what is in them? There are probably a hundred or more different kinds of buns and bun-like things in China, and each province seems to have a specialy bun or two.

So how do I say: "What kind of buns are they?" Would it be: 这个内装什么？ (zhègè nèi zhuāng shénme?) Or something more complex like： 这个什么中的包？ (zhègè shénme zhōng de bāo?)

My confidence was shattered the last time I tried to answer one of your questions, but I'll try again:)  This is what I'd say:

小笼包里什么菜？
xiǎolóngbāo lǐ shénme cài？

What food is inside the steamed dumpling?

I'm not sure if 菜 cài would be the right term for "food."

I love the music in these videos!

I also like how you flash the characters first and then the pin yin & pronunciation a second later.

Great! With the music and the editing and the street-life and the people, you make these clips fun to watch again and again.

1) 麻花 - ma2hua1 - dough-twist is interesting - literally hemp flower? Is there a slight resemblance? Same 麻 ma2 as 麻烦 - ma2fan2 - trouble (with hemp?!).

2) 锅贴 - guo1tie1 - pot-sticker is new to me. Zhongwen.com translates it as fried-dumpling. "Pot-sticker" seems to be a literal translation from Chinese. Is that what you call them in N America? I like the character 锅 - guo1 - pot, pan: the metal radical plus a little man being boiled alive in a big pot.

3) I'm a bit confused about 饼 - bing3. The Transcript lists 饼 - bing3 as pancake. Zhongwen.com says 饼 - bing3 is "biscuit".  - is this U.S. "cookie"? (BTW, in UK: cookie - softer, loose-textured, larger; biscuit - sweet, harder, very brittle, usually smaller.)

I know biscuit as 饼干 - bing3gan1 (that's what Chinese friends call them when telling their kids they can't have another).

I've found some nice words that use the 凉 - liang2 in 凉皮 - liang2pi2 - cold noodles:

凉菜 - liang2cai4 - salad
凉鞋 - liang2xie2 - sandals ("cold shoes" - I love that!)

Are those words common?

(And the phonetic part of liang2 seems to be the 京 - jing1 in 北京 - bei3jing1.)

On the topic of salads, and also street food.While it all looks delicious, many tourists have concerns about becoming bu4shu1fu with la1du4zi and are advised to eat in the better restaurants and avoid salads and street food.I would be interested in peoples opinion on this.Are there health inspectors that check on the street vendors? How does one judge which street vendors food is safer.Obviously being piping hot is a good start.

Very good lesson (teaching) format, i liked it very much, printed the pinyin .pdf and while watching the video.  Very effective and fun.

你们怎么没提到煎饼？我在北京留学的时候，午饭就经常吃煎饼。如果不加香菜就很好吃啊！

上海没有煎饼吗？

@eyux: The Chinese word 饼 for "cookies" is confusing. It can mean anything from a kind of griddle cake, to a Western-style cookie, to the kind of flakey pastry which is known as "piah" (the Hokkien word for 饼) in Penang, Malacca and Singapore, where the full name of the "flakey pastry + bean paste thingey" is 豆沙饼 (or "tau sar piah", in the local Chinese dialect).

My gentle warning to anybody who is trying to keep kosher or observe halal : Most types of 饼 are made with a lot of pork lard! 

@bababardwan: Regarding food safety and street hawkers, I think you just have to follow your instincts. I would not hesitate to get my tummy used to Chinese street food if I were planning to spend -- say -- a year there, but for a short trip of maybe a week or less, I would give it a miss. I would happily run the risk of contracting hepatitis for a year or two of delicious street food, but not for a short business trip. The system does need some time to adjust to new germs, and I think I could probably handle Shanghai street food after about two weeks of on-and-off stomach upsets.

It's really a question of what you feel that you are ready to handle. I don't like eating food that is served to me by a man who is smoking a cigarette. Or street food served up by a hand which has just received a filthy banknote (and even given change!!!), or which was freshly prepared at the kerb of a busy street with no way for me to know whether the meat had passed inspection. It's really up to you! Don't be afraid to try anything which looks really good, but don't let anybody shame you into eating something which you wouldn't touch in your home country! HTH.

I trust the safety of street food even more than restaurant food, since I can see the ingredients and preparation methods first hand, sniff the raw meat before they cook it, etc. I've gotten sick on restaurant food here but not street food, which I eat at least a couple of times a week. For the traveller, it is also very accessible across a language barrier since you don't have to read a menu and you can order and pay with hand signals.

My method of asking the filling is always 里面 是 什么? but maybe there is a more correct way to ask.

bababardwan, I don't think the Chinese street food is too poisonous. I ate something dubious in Beijing, but I still don't know if it was street food that made me ill or restaurant food. However, everything else was fine (and really 方便). Plus, if you're put on antibiotics, then it gives you license to eat whatever you want, right? (Later I was told this was not the case - there could be parasites. Guess I was lucky!)

Can any poddies tell me how to add the vocab tour videos to my ipod? It's an mp4 file but my ipod doesn't seem to recognize it. Can one export the file to ipod format and then sync it to ipod? Thanks!

SiYao

It just arrives in my (subscriber) feed, and the ipod just handles it with no extra steps, so I'm spared any importing hassle.  I have: a Cpod subscription (i.e. custom feed), Mac, and iPod classic 4th gen. First check whether you have the latest software on itunes and on the ipod - there might have been some video-handling updates. Then, verify that itunes on the computer plays the file.

Thanks auntie,sushan,and sebire for your replies.Yes auntie,I think you're right in that it makes a difference on the purpose of your trip and how long you are there for.

I have no problems with audio files, but the new video vocab tour files (.mp4) don't seem to show up when I sync with Itunes. Is there something I'm not doing right? I have a 5th generation Ipod with 80 gb capacity.

SiYao

Siyao

Make sure you have selected both audio AND video for synchronsation within itunes.  I had the same problem when cpod first started this video series and it was driving me crazy.  I think itunes' default setting is just to sync audio files to your ipod, so you have to make sure you also tell it to sync video files.

Hope this helps!

chris

when i lived briefly in 西安 there was a street vendor who sold the most divine pancake sort of things, but they were more a puff pastry, rolled with pork mince and cabbage and then deep fried. have totally forgotten what they were called.

perfect hangover breakfast!

light487,

By now you've probably discovered the answer to your question a couple of days ago about asking what's in the buns,but in case you haven't ,it was the final question in the expansion section:

这个小笼包是什么馅儿的？
(What kind of filling is in these steamed dumplings?)

I just bought a plane ticket to Shanghai yesterday.  I will have to be sure to do a good job of studying this lesson, so that I can eat some of this good stuff when I get over there.

Cool video guys!

How about doing a vegetarian 'street food' video.haha

 I'm guessing its non existent from what i've seen in China. The only two vegetarian street food i can think of are the sweet potato and the bread barbeque :) . Could someone tell me what they are both called in chinese

Hi cPod Team,

Another great Vid, all the food made me hungry and reminded me of trip in '07.  I plan on returning for spring 09.

Keep up that great work Everyone.

Warmly,

Kolohe

Vikram

First off, I think it's awesome you're sporting the Iron Maiden CPOD composite art I put togehter well over a year ago (or was it two?!!!).  Thanks man!  Sounds like the insdie of your iPod might be alot like mine.

I'm also vegetarain and found there are street foods available.  You might check the lesson on 糖炒栗子 (sweet roasted chestnuts).  I was told that I was one of the only foreigners who actually enjoyed eating 臭豆腐 (stinky tofu) which is also a popular street food found in many parts of China.   In fact, considering fruits, sweets, and the plethera of tofu options vegetarian street food is quite accessible if you're willing to look.  I even found that vegetable 包子 (stuffed buns) were easy to find in Beijing.

Hey Rash!

The inside of my ipod might EXACTLY be like yours!

Cpod and Iron Maiden

I remember reading the caption of this pic you had put up on flickr .

Have been privileged enough to watch maiden twice in the last 12 months.Both in India. Bangalore and Mumbai where the 'somewhere back in time ' tour kicked off.

Up the irons \m/

Sweet! I always thought peeking into someone else's iPod is a little like looking into their diary or medicine cabinet...  you might find things you also have, but maybe a few surprises.  My iPod is full of Maiden, Priest, CPOD and some late 90's metalcore, and possible some unmentionables.. or should I say guilty pleasures.  The CPOD lesson on sound check was OK, but what about a lesson on heavy metal?  Might have a narrow audience I suspect...

Yeah a lesson on heavy metal for the cpod metalheads... haha

Cool...can share my recent metal downloads with you.

Learning Chinese is now easier with the help of Chinese pinyin (hanyu pinyin). In China, children learn the Chinese language by using pinyin.

I'd like to commend a free website http://www.speakchinesonline.com to you guys as a useful tool and subsidiary material in learning Mandarin Chinese pinyin.

Initials: http://www.speakchinesonline.com/initials.htm;

Finals: http://www.speakchineseonline.com/finals.htm;

Chinese pinyin syllabary: http://www.speakchineseonline.com/syllabary.htm;

watsonqu,

re:

"In China, children learn the Chinese language by using pinyin".

Is that right? I was surprised by this.This brings many questions up;how widespread is this and for how long has this been the case? Is it because they're trying to learn some English at the same time [by getting familiar with the alphabet ] ?

You know what would be really useful? If the Chinesepod fixes, or "Audio Reviews" as they're now called, were videos that displayed a slideshow of the incoming words, like flash cards in a way. Honestly, I rarely read the PDFs, and having the characters displayed to me via ipod would be awesome. Also, I hate to say it, but sometimes I don't understand what you're saying in the fixes Amber: eg. "laconic" in 妈妈在哪里 or “a red mole" in 张爱玲经典名句. For the longest time I thought you were saying "iconic", and "I read 'em all." So this would provide a good visual cue as well.

bababardwan ,

Chinese Pinyin is the Romanization of the Chinese "written sound" only; Romanization approximates Chinese Mandarin pronunciation with Western spellings and includes a tone mark to signify the Chinese characters.

In China, children learn the Chinese hanzi/characters by using pinyin.

Hi bababardwan,

As watsonqu said, Chinese children learn 汉字 with the help of pinyin. Interestingly, when children can't remember how to write a 汉字，they often write it in pinyin instead.

In the past, pinyin was for "children only" and not important anymore for adults, but the situation has changed. Most Chinese people use pinyin-input methods now.

watsonqu,

Yeah;I understand what Pinyin is.Sorry ,my last post was obviously pretty unclear.I was just surprised that Chinese children now learn this way.After all Pinyin has only been around since about 1956 and before that Wade-Giles since 1859 I think.So traditionally I'm presuming that Chinese children did not learn this way.I was obviously erroneously under the impression that these systems of Romanisation were developed purely for the benefit of westerners/foreigners trying to learn Chinese.Not the case ,hey? But I am very interested in how Chinese kids learn their Mandarin ,and what such an insight could give me to my own learning.

This was also very surprising for me to learn.  I just learned this a few days ago from my friend from Beijing.  She's in her late 40's (has lived in US for 20 years) and told me that she had learned pinyin as a child.

This blew me away because one, I thought pinyin was developed to aid Westerners in learning Chinese, and two, because it meant that Chinese would have to learn the Roman alphabet and its sounds.  I could understand now, since so many Chinese children learn English, but I was surprised to learn that children learned pinyin 40 years ago!

Also, the majority of my Chinese friends have been from Taiwan and they don't seem to know pinyin at all.  So this makes me wonder if it's harder for them to learn Chinese growing up (aside from the trad. character aspect).

___________________________

bababardwan, get out of my head!  Basically our posts are identical.

changye et al.

watsonqu is a spamer.

Hi changye,

We were obviously writing at about the same time ,'cos I've only just got your post now.Thanks for elaborating on what watsonqu was saying.Very interesting.Also ,very nice to hear from such a CPod guru,taking the time to explain to a newbie.Thanks again :)

calkins,

Yeah,likewise.But with regards to Taiwanese not knowing pinyin,you may already know this but I think I read on a recent post that they were using a different method of Romanisation [ ?was it Wade-Giles ] until recently switching to Pinyin.Obviously they would have would have learnt the alphabet for that.

ps .just read your added bit.Yeah,bit freaky.Maybe in some other dimension..Did I mention that I'm also very interested in photography ? [Though once again,at a much lower level ;It's just an interest for me ,whereas you're a pro I note ]

billm,

Maybe I shouldn't be asking this ,but you've got me curious.I know of course what is usually meant by spamming.But I'm wondering what you mean in this instance ,how you know,and how it might affect me? If you don't want to post it,perhaps you could send me a PM ? Thanks .

Hi bababardwan,

You can see how Chinese children learn 汉字 and pinyin by seeing the following web page. Actually, textbooks and readers for children are very beneficial for us foreign learners, especially Tang poems or history books, since they have pinyin readings above all the Chinese characters.

http://images.google.cn/imgres?imgurl=http://images.joyo.com/b/ban_lwk_070410_tgee6052612.jpg&imgrefurl=http://buy.mp4cn.com/2/24/2008-06-30/138868.htm&h=503&w=400&sz=18&hl=zh-CN&start=33&um=1&usg=__yVl5WP0S66KjtU3lGuCCml_tU10=&tbnid=Hx4yW6FUblHjQM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=103&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%25E6%258B%25BC%25E9%259F%25B3%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26complete%3D1%26hl%3Dzh-CN%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DN

http://images.google.cn/images?ndsp=20&um=1&complete=1&hl=zh-CN&newwindow=1&q=%E6%8B%BC%E9%9F%B3&start=0&sa=N

Thanks changye,

Yes,I'd love to have some of those resourses not only for my kids,but also for myself.Those colourful flashcards look great;and childrens readers could be fun for all the family.

Seeing the 小笼包 makes me want to take another trip to Shanghai!

calkins and sushan,

'What filling is in the xiaolongbao?' is:

小笼包里是什么馅儿？
Xiǎolóngbāo lǐ shì shénme xiànr？

yeah, but that's a little too specific for all the zillion filled, stuffed,and wrapped things you might find along the street. For anything you can use 里面 是 什么 to ask what's inside and 叫 什么 for what is this called.

flaky, puff pastry with spicy (or sometimes sweet) fillings sound a lot like guo kui but these are more regional to Sichuan.

These videos are great -- specifically, they may encourage me to continue my subscription.  I am using them in my Chinese classes (I teach kids) and they are an unreplaceable way to introduce a Chinese environment, though in a small way, to the classroom here in the USA!

Nice job.

I want some of that marijuana flowers.

I've tasted that burger in Xi An, but I much prefer 泡馍 (paomo, crusted pita bread over a lamb stew).

My least favourite 小吃: cocoon on a stick. Scorpions are fine.

@eyux, potstickers are one af my favourites, you should try them ! I think 饺子are often translated as dumplings , because that is the Western food they can be best compared to. 锅贴 have that yummy 'potsticking' crust at the bottom and the upper part is steamed....mmmhhhh. Those lucky North Americans can get them deep frozen at supermarkets, at least I remember getting them like that in San Francisco...there, people are even so lucky to be able to eat at  Dim Sum restaurants....life... so unfair...Oh, and eyux, I will never forget the character 锅 again ;)

Potstickers are my favourite. anyways whats a cold noodle. I heard something about Xi'an is related to them.

Ken and Jenny, can you do another vocab tour of like a farm or market where you point out different animals

speaking of food, will the taikonauts eat freeze dried shaomai and other dianxin in space?

Was wondering why Chinese astronauts are called taikonauts and found this for those who like me didn't know and are interested:

The term was coined by Western media based on the term "taikong" (太空 in pinyin: tai4 kong1), Chinese for space.

This video makes me want to live in China again.

@ linfeng2008

I went for a street food binge over the weekend. Not recommended to have it for 6 meals in a row. The first couple of meals were good though :S

bababardwan,

That's great! 太空 (too empty or too much vastness)! What a perfect word for space.

frances,

yes;this is just one of the many things I love about this language;the interesting derivation of the words and what it tells about the way things are viewed.I note there are some really good things being done in the groups looking at the etymology of words.mandarinboy has been doing some great stuff.But I feel like a kid in a candy store exploring this website ;I don't know which way to turn as there are so many cool things to check out and only so much time in a day.

frances & babardwan,

one of the many things I learned from changye is that for many seemingly funny collocations which form Chinese words you find sober explanations when considering the vast array of meanings most characters carry - including older or even ancient readings.

太 for example obviously has the additonal meaning of "big, vast" - without a superlative connotation.

For mnemonic reasons, stranger explanations are of course more helpful which is why I also apply them wherever I can.  :)

Thanks henning.Can you direct me to where it is explained how to put those links in that you do like "obviously" in your post above.Very cool.Also,when it comes to adding photos,I can only work out how to load photos that are on the web as it asks for a url.Is there a way to load your own photos if so desired?

You select the text that you want to transform into a link and then press on that little chain icon in the toolbar on top of the editing window. A new window will open where you can enter the URL.

Images always need to be stored elsewhere, e.g. on your personal flickr space.

As to where this is all explained: Good question.

henning,

Thanks a lot mate.I just got the link to work in another post [on topic of Government].Certainly makes it a lot tidier [some of those url's are long and I had a problem with a couple of posts because of that;it would chop off some of the post ],and also easier for people to click on.Well explained.

I miss 小笼包 much. According to Anthony Bourdain it's one of Shanghai delicacy.

Once I ate octopus and fried tofu on the streets. At dinner,my stomach felt bad.

The slowed down pronunciation can be helpful I suppose.  But, especially when the pinyin is already there to see, I would rather hear the names said at regular, fluent speed.

More Videos please  :-)  Like the Dmode song  I just can't get enough

哇。 好想中国 ！！！

John, what song did you use for the background music? 哪首歌？

大家好！

我是新的chinese pod user， 我觉得chinese pod 非常好！！ 我有一个问题， 饺子和锅贴的区别到底是什么呢？ 看起来很像。

谢谢！

Great video. I just love Chinese food so much!! Music from the Go Team! was a good choice as well! Very uplifting.

When I studied a semester of Chinese about ten years ago in Beijing one of the restaurants near to my school did a great chinese menu with very accurate English translations. I'd love to get hold of something like that again. Have any c-podders out there got any recommendations on websites where chinese dish names are given alongside some decent translations?

Thanks guys.

慢用

wow. this makes me hungry. you guys try the excerises, it will drive you crazy!! so many words i dunno.