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Travel jargon: What hotels say vs. what they mean
Move to dump Chinglish from Beijing menus
Uncovering Dhaka: 10 things to know
Wudai-Shiguo: Hong Kong's most talked-about retro store
Beyond Seoul: 19 reasons to explore Korea

Travel jargon: What hotels say vs. what they mean

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 11:28 PM PDT

by CNNGo staff

As any advertising guru worth his online college travel marketing diploma will tell you, the secret to attracting travelers to a destination and filling hotel rooms is to embellish the goods without lying.

But don't listen to us. The great "godfather" of advertising David Ogilvy put it far more eloquently: "Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine."

That doesn't mean marketers aren't averse to stretching the truth, all the while adhering to the most important rule of all: never, ever mention a destination's shortcomings.

The marketing game has spawned plenty of tricky phrases and deceptive wording that travelers can easily misinterpret.

To help sort through the fluff, we've translated some of the most common travel advertising parlance, using personal experience.

Move to dump Chinglish from Beijing menus

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 06:32 PM PDT

by CNNGo staff

Next time you travel to Beijing, you will be less likely to find a particular Chinese specialty on restaurants' menu: hilarious Chinglish dish names.

The Beijing authorities have published a manual listing the official English names for 2,158 Chinese dishes and 944 foreign foods, hoping to help the city's 70,000 restaurants rectify their English translations.

Chinglish is funny, but might be misleading

Jointly published by the Beijing Foreign Affairs Office and Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Programme (BSFLP), the 196-page book covers most mainstream Chinese dishes in the country's eight most influential cuisines, from the RMB-5 hand-pulled noodle soup to the extravagant braised abalone and seafood in casserole.

"[Chinglish] might be a funny culture to international travelers, but the translation of dish names shall not be misleading to foreigners," said an anonymous officer from BSFLP, a governmental organization dedicated to raising Beijingers' awareness of foreign languages.

If you have never read an English menu in a local Chinese restaurant, here are a few examples of what you've been missing.

Uncovering Dhaka: 10 things to know

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PDT

by Matt Bennett

India's national cricket team continues to fight to defend its 2011 Asia Cup title in a match against Bangladesh today in Dhaka, a city that could very well be described as Asia's most discreet capital.

Despite being spread over 150 square kilometers and home to an estimated 10 million people, Dhaka is not often a priority destination for travelers.

So what's there to know? Here are 10 things -- cricket included, of course -- that define the city.

1. Crazy for cricket

Bangladeshis are mad about cricket. Dhaka is home to the national stadium and many of the country's top stars; cricket is played everywhere: alleyways, parks, roads and even rooftops.

With the Asia Cup hosted by Bangladesh this year, the city is a blaze of green and red flags as kids run around cheering for the national team.

Wudai-Shiguo: Hong Kong's most talked-about retro store

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT

by Hiufu Wong

Wudai-Shiguo, better known as WDSG, is one of the most talked-about new shops that opened this week in Hong Kong's hottest indie shopping area, the Star Street neighborhood.

It's the passion project of six local designers who dismiss all the icons of Hong Kong as "clichés."

"People think that Hong Kong means egg tarts, or when it comes to design it means the red, white and blue bags," says Kenji Wong, creative director of WDSG. "I don't think so."

Instead, Wong and the WDSG team are into 1930s Americana.

WDSG sells near-historically accurate reproductions of furniture from the United States and clothing by Mister Freedom and Ralph Lauren Leather.