[QUOTE=jiejie;17483841]No idiom, not used in Mandarin. Similar to refering to someone as turtle egg..doesn't translate to english understandably.

[QUOTE=jiejie;17483841]Impressive, seems right to me. Instead of 插入 you can also just use 放, but the former is more illustrative I suppose.

Then again, this is using our English slang and directly translating to Chinese, not sure if you'll get the affect you need.

[QUOTE=mnredfox;17488118]Oh it may not be perfect Chinese or in keeping with untranslatable idioms, but she definitely got the message! Part of it is delivery--I am talented at snarling at pesky touts and vendors. ;)

[QUOTE=mnredfox;17488118]Simpler and not as offensive:

bì zuǐ - Shut Up

Why so rude when people are just trying to make a living?

It might not be the best way to make a sale but that lady is still a human being and trying to make ends meet.

Just ignoring them or saying that you are not interested would more than suffice.

Sounds rude to me.

A simple "bu yao" is enough, which is "dont want".



[QUOTE=anacapamalibu;17488973]

I agree with you. I try my best to be civil with taxi drivers, including touts, because it's a really crappy job. The murder attempt I witnessed a few years back was an eye opener, to say the least. The reason many taxi drivers are not intelligent is that even McDonalds pays more money these days. My advice to the forum is: 1) give drivers a wide berth; and 2) always know where you are going.... while addresses are almost completely useless in Beijing, the layout of the city is rather idiot proof, and there are some pretty slick iPhone aps out there.

^ I usually just walk past and ignore them. If they start to walk with me I tell them I'm not interested and they usually go away. I have asked a few touts if they thought I was stupid when they tried to offer me offensively inflated fares (like 3x or more) but I've never actually been nasty to any of them. I get no satisfaction from being rude to others.

We also took our first trip to China in late September (Beijing, Suzhou and Shanghai). I noticed the OP said that the Summer Palace was "outside the city" and "quite a while away". We had read in the guidebooks that you can take the metro most of the way there, but then you have to take a taxi the rest of the way. We were happy to discover that one of the newer metro lines (can't remember which number) goes all the way to the Summer Palace, so no need for a taxi (if you're cheap like me :D ).

BTW, we learned to refer to it as the "metro" or train after twice asking an English-speaking Chinese person for directions to the subway and being directed to a sandwich shop!

The situation JJ is refering to, involves fraud perpetrated on foreigners at theCapital airport. Its clearly theft by deceit. What a great first impression of China.
"My first experience visiting China, I got ripped off by the taxi driver from the airport to my hotel. Then day 2, I visited the most historic landmark in the Capital city and got ripped off in a tea scam."

These two scams could be shut down immediately. Just as they both were for 08 Olympics.

Something wrong with quotes, since I didn't say your quoted quote.

Yikes. The corner newstand near my office sells either a 60Y or a 100Y card, with 30Y and 50Y airtime respectively. I wasn't thinking and got the 100Y card, and realised it was more expensive because it came with silly services like music downloads and such. Even then, I think it took me more than a month to use up the 50Y airtime - and that included a fair bit of international SMSs and calls. I got my local mobile line just as it ran out, so have not tried to top up a local prepaid card so far. But even at 300Y it is a lot of money.

Belated response here, but please spare the sanctimonious comments about rudeness to touts, et al, when you don't know the situation. This particular woman wasn't out and about in the crowd looking for any takers per your usual tout, she was sitting on a bench and when she spotted me I was at least 30 meters away (i.e. not close). She leaped off that bench and practically jogged over to me, knocking over a small child and an elderly couple in her path. In other words, I was specifically targeted and it was because she had me pegged as a gullible foreigner. That goes well beyond the typical "tout" and into the realm of "cheat" or "pianzi" if you prefer the Chinese. And she wasn't the actual driver providing the service (with whom I would have been more lenient)--she was the spotter looking for a patsy.

Verbal rudeness is mean you say? Well let me hurt your sensibilities even more....if my hands hadn't been full, I'd have punched her in the gut. I really, really don't like being targeted for a set-up.


[QUOTE=anacapamalibu;17490834]The situation JJ is refering to, involves fraud perpetrated on foreigners at theCapital airport. Its clearly theft by deceit. What a great first impression of China.
"My first experience visiting China, I got ripped off by the taxi driver from the airport to my hotel. Then day 2, I visited the most historic landmark in the Capital city and got ripped off in a tea scam."

These two scams could be shut down immediately. Just as they both were for 08 Olympics.[/QUOTE]

Indeed on both bolds.

Maybe I don't know what it's like to be a very visible foreigner in China, but I'm sure punching someone would have gone over well with all the bystanders. That would really make a good impression of Americans abroad. ^

Please, it's not like China is land of the Boy Scouts. While I don't necessarily advocate physical violence, I once decked a guy that tried to lift my wallet.... reflexive.