See China

Some recent jokes from the Courtyard Ally (胡同) columns of Beijing Daily (京华时报), submitted by readers as real life stories, translated and slightly re-adapted by SeeChina only.

A Chinese named Yang Heyang wrote an article on Sina.com, recalling how he became “the funniest man in the world”, a titled conferred to him by the kind citizens of Kiel, Germany.

Any urban children growing up in today’s China would be familiar with the Big Big Wolf and the Pleasant Goat (喜羊羊与灰太狼), an animation series broadcast, merchandized and publicized almost anytime, everywhere. The 7-year-old son of the protagnist is no exception.

For many English readers, the spelling of a Chinese name often brings a lot of headache, but a list of humorously romanticized Chinese names created by the notoriously mischieveous “netizens” of China, seem to have paved out a shinning way for this brave new global village. For example: Johnny for Confucius, Angel for Ma Ying-jeou, and Louis Bond for Liu Bang, founder of Han Dynasty who lived about 2000 years ago.

Online travel company Ctrip got a lot of people excited yesterday when they began advertising for adventure trips throughout China, including base jumping in Shanghai, capture the flag in a tiger park, and spending the day as a terracotta warrior.