Funny Tourist Moments
Any time you visited another country, some things will strike you as funny.
They may be cultural customs you’ve never seen before, they may be misunderstandings that become funny in hindsight.
Here’s a look at some funny moments I had during my trip to China and Mongolia in 2015.
- Miswritten Menus
My team visited a Chinese restaurant in Mongolia and discovered that something interesting. Someone had tried to translate the meal descriptions into English and apparently gotten the descriptions wrong.
One page had the words “Spiced elbow flower” listed as a meal option, as well as “pineapple goo old meat.”
The best page, which I couldn’t get a good picture of, had a meal option listed as “mushrooms slippery mushrooms.”
Fortunately, the food was great.
- Sesame Seed Ice Cream
McDonald’s is known for changing their menus a little in every country.
In China, as I learned from advertisements like this one, they sell sesame seed ice cream.
I never got up the courage to try this. I’m a bit sorry that I didn’t.
- Plastic on Plates
After eating at various restaurants in Beijing, I noticed that almost every place we visited had one thing in common.
They all had shrink-wrapped dishes.
Once you sat at your table, you'd find your plates in a shrink-wrapped bundle in front of you, and open the bundle by poking the plastic with your chopsticks.
According to Chinese news source The Nanfang (https://thenanfang.com/behind-the-scenes-of-chinas-filthy-shrink-wrapped-eating-utensils/), shrink-wrapping plates is supposed to make sure each plate stays clean after being washed and sterilized.
Not a bad idea.
- Cartoons on the Subway
I rode the subway quite a lot while I was in Beijing, and about half the time the trains were traveling through tunnels.
I noticed early on that many of these subway tunnels had what appeared to be cartoons playing on the walls.
According to YouTuber Horacio Dez (see his video below) these cartoons are actually illuminated posters, frequently used to show advertisements:
- Smiley Face Sewer Covers
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city, is interesting for many reasons.
The buildings have color schemes you wouldn’t see in the United States, and the streets have some unusual features.
My favorite feature was these sewer covers.
Someone had taken the time to paint smiley faces on many of Ulaanbaatar’s sewer covers, anything from generic smiley faces to ones that looked like the Pringles logo.
I never figured out if these smiley face sewer covers were specific to the district I was staying in, or if they existed all over the city.
Note: All images taken by Gabriel Connor Salter. Feel free to use and share, as long as you include attribution.
You can read more about my trip to China and Mongolia here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B9P48LV/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8