August 20, 2008 9:23 AM
Fuchengmen or Fuxingmen?
I met karaoke superstar and Beijing City Weekend dining editor Matt Schrader for lunch this afternoon. Strangely enough for a guy who writes about food, Schrader claims to be a picky eater. I'll excuse that, though; lunch was impressive.Schrader had asked me to meet him at the subway stop near his office. I knew the stop was on the west side of line 2. I knew the subway station started with the letter F and ended with the phrase "men."
Then I got onto line 2 and realized that -- of course -- there are two such stations that fit that description. They're right next to each other.
One is called Fuchengmen. The other is Fuxingmen.
I did end up picking the right stop -- Fuchengmen -- but the experience was a reminder that, as always, nothing here is ever easy for a non-Mandarin speaker. Not even finding subway stops that start with F and end in "men."
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