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[Andy Woo]

Hi All,

You may be confused about all those proper names of hotels and restaurants in China. Here is a list of them and I hope it is helpful for you guys.

宾馆bīnguǎn：a hotel

(大）酒店(dà)jiǔdiàn : Literally,it is a "wine shop".Actually,it combines a restaurant with a hotel. Maybe it was because some guys got drunk and couldn't go back home themselves ,they provided rooms for those guys. And now we keep the name "wine shop".

酒家jiǔjiā: a traditional Chinese food restaurant

旅馆lǚguǎn:a hostel

饭店fàndiàn :a restaurant

餐馆cānguǎn: a small restaurant

饭馆fànguǎn : a small restaurant(in northern part of China)

餐厅cāntīng : a fairly good restaurant

食堂 shítáng : a dining hall(in a school or a factory)

[Andy Woo]

Hi Tim,

Thank you for your reply.

You are right. The literal translation for "canting" is "cafeteria". China is big enough to have so many dialects and different terms for some frequently used things. And some small restaurants want to enlarge their scale by their bigger names. LOL　

You may hear the rest of them in northern or southern part of China. Those terms are all I hear in Shanghai since it is a city where there are people from all parts of China.

[Loramos]

Thanks for sharing this Chinese vocabuary. Generally speaking, foreigner come to China would choose hotel(酒店 jiǔ diàn), and then I think you should also want to know how to making a reservation, check-in and check-out in Chinese. Here's a tutorial to help you: Hotel Chinese Lesson for Traveler and Hotel Staff

[Aussie Mike]

Nice link thanks Loramos.  
Hanbridge Mandarin

[Loramos]

@Aussie You're welcome. I'm glad to hear that.