Confusing Chinglish from “Tanzili” (?) in Weichang

This past October Break, the extra day off meant yours truly managed to visit Weichang Manchu and Mongol Autonomous County (围场满族蒙古族自治区) in the northernmost extremes of Hebei. Amazingly, they have a Starbucks (which in China, shows to the local authorities “you have money” or “you are global” — supposedly). But they were also not short on Chinglish.

This very restaurant billboard featuring “Tanzili” (which is confusing in itself) perplexes many, because it seems like the English translation basically bears little resemblance to its original text in English. Notably, Googling Tanzili pops up some Tanzanian government authority as the first search result!…

In China, something that is branded as “nationals” (as in people; 国民) is seen as a “good norm for people”, something other enterprises should strive to be. This, then, is for a restaurant offering barbecued meat. Anyone with a basic understanding of both languages should know how “off” the very poor translation was.

Given, then, that the whole translation is basically wasted as it is, here is the correct translation for this restaurant:

Quality Barbecued Meat Loved by Customers
The Original, Safe and Satisfying

We have absolutely no idea how Tanzili came to be part of this ad — and the Chinese makes no mention on pricing (“spend the same money on more meat”). The English — Chinglish, rather — can go. Let’s replace it with proper English!

Weichang, Hebei (Northern China), 05 October 2025


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