README.adoc

It is already difficult to do the cuisine for one part of China well, imagine for multiple countries.

Just beware of "Sichuan" restaurants: their cuisine is so well known even in the West that I've seen many not so good restaurants that describe themselves like that, even if the owners are from another region. But there are many good ones which really are from there as well.

[[resturants--similar-lists]]
==== Similar lists

[[resturants--how-to-order]]
==== How to order

For all restaurants, ask the waiter for suggestions. Tell him that you:

* want the most typical dishes, not what the foreign locals eat, but what the Chinese eat
* can eat spicy food, way more than any foreign local person can.
+
The spice level you generally want is "zhong1 la2" (medium spicy)
+
If you can't eat spicy, either learn or stop reading now and accept the fact that you will never eat good Chinese food.
* if the restaurant is from some region, ask for dishes from the region, and which are different from other regions.
+
I was once <<dumplings>> (super popular dish everywhere in China which I buy frozen and eat every 3 days) in a Tibetan restaurant... Yes, I do believe Tibetans also eat jiaozi! :-)
* Speaking a little Chinese goes a long way towards convincing the owners that you can handle the real thing.

Only order dishes with meat. Those without are not worth the money/time. Aubergine is the exception.

[[restaurants--france]]
=== France 法国

Traiteurs are simpler restaurants that let you see pre-made foods in a glass showcase for you to choose how big your portions will be.

They are the best way to eat a cheap and balanced meal in Paris, but I have never found one that serves exceptional Chinese food, so beware.

[[restaurants--france--paris]]
==== Paris 巴黎

Paris has one of the largest Chinese communities outside of China in the whole world centered in the 14eme arrondissement, plus a lot of Chinese students with money around.

As a result, you can find some of the best Chinese food in the world outside of China!

Bibliography:

* https://carnetdecroute.blogspot.fr
* http://cnkick.net/2013/09/10/les-meilleurs-restaurants-chinois-de-paris-le-guide-cn-kick/
* https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-Chinese-restaurants-in-Paris
* https://www.newsavour.com/restaurants/ Chinese only, Paris, website subsidiary of some larger Chinese group.

* Restaurant Sichuan (川里川外)
+
17 Rue le Peletier, 75009 Paris
+
Xianglaxie.
+
Last checked: 2017/06
* Chez Yong (Ding Ding Xiang, 鼎鼎香)
+
42, rue de la Colonie, 75013 Paris
+
** shui zhu niu rou
** dishes with intestines
* La Chine sur la langue (舌尖美味)
+
163 rue Saint-Denis, 75002 Paris
+
** Spicy soup with Chinese charcuteries. Ma la tang.
** Large dry and thin bread. Jing dong da bing. 京东大饼. http://www.nipic.com/show/1/55/7885c266f22649ae.html[Picture].
* Quatre Amis (那家小馆)
+
29 rue de Charenton, 75012 Paris
+
--
** Fried octopus
** Shui zhu niu rou
** Anything with intestines
--
* Le Céleste Gourmand (福来居, fu lai ju)
+
8 Rue de la Tacherie, 75004 Paris
* L'Orient d'Or (福源丰)
+
22, Rue de trévise, 75009 Paris
+
--
** Galettes croustillantes au canard (xiang su ya dai bing, 香酥鸭带饼)
** Poisson pimentee (suan tang yu, 酸汤鱼)
** Soupe aux cartilages de porc avec algues (hai dai pau gu tang, 海带排骨汤)
--
+
Hunan style.
+
25 euros / person.
* Carnet de Route
+
57 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 75009 Paris
+
Last checked: 2016/04
* 0 d'Attente (锅先生不等位)
+
55 Boulevard Saint-Marcel, 75013 Paris
+
+33 9 81 49 68 06
+
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d6984996-Reviews-0_d_Attente-Paris_Ile_de_France.html
+
Like style of chairs and cutlery.
+
Ironically, the service was not particularly fast as the name indicates. Normal, but not ultra-fast as I imagined :-)
+
lotus with rice (Nuo mi tang ou) and boeuf sechee (guo xian sheng ...) not very good, but baked fish and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigan_cai kaorou were great.
+
Last checked: 2016/02
* Autour du Yangtse (食尚煮意)
+
12 Rue du Helder, 75009 Paris
+
--
** Marmite de poisson et de tofu (豆花鱼)
** Saliva chicken (口水鸡)
** Aubergines farcies sur plaqua chauffante (铁板脆皮茄)
--
+
http://www.autourduyangtse.com/
* Deux Fois Plus De Piment (绝代双椒)
+
Address: 33 Rue Saint-Sébastien, 75011 Paris
+
Sichuan style.
* Délices de Shandong (山东小馆)
+
88 Boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75013 Paris
* Hakka Home
+
3 Rue Voltaire, 75011 Paris
+
Food from the Hakka people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_people
+
Most dishes are like other good Chinese restaurants in Paris, but there were a few different ones.
* Maison Dong (东馆)
+
36 Rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris
+
Last checked: 2017/04
* Royal Tching Tao (青岛人家)
+
8 Rue du Bel-Air, 75012 Paris
+
** Galettes croustillantes au canard. Shi zi tou.
** Sweet fish （Song shu gui yu 松鼠桂鱼)
* Le Pont de Yunnan (滋味云南)
+
15 Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, 75009
+
Great food, but we had a bad service experience: got kicked out too early, even with a reservation.
* Tien Hiang (天香)
+
14, rue Bichat, 75010 Paris
+
Vegetarian food: most dishes are an imitation of a dish with meat.
+
Not as good as the original meat for me, but very interesting and good for a change.
+
Chinese vegetarians are rare. In theory, the origin of the food in this restaurant is Hong Kong Buddhism (Buddhist monks cannot eat meat, while other believers can.)
* Likafo (利口福酒家)
+
39 Avenue de Choisy, 75013 Paris
+
https://www.facebook.com/LIKAFO-利口福酒家-139814799396/
+
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigan_cai[Meigan cai] roast pork (梅菜扣肉) https://img.epochtimes.com/i6/901120923161469.jpg
* Restaurant Sichuan (四川人家)
+
31-33 Rue Descartes, 75005 Paris
+
Perfect Fuqi feipian.
+
Huiguorou is good not my style, I prefer with leek.
+
Last checked: 2017/04

[[resturants--france--paris--tier-2]]
===== Paris tier 2

Cheaper / simpler restaurants that are really worth it if you want not to be hungry, but not worth it if you want eat exceptional food:

* Ace Boucherie
+
58 Rue Sainte-Anne, 75002 Paris
+
Korean takeaway traiteur. Very good. Try calamar.
+
Last checked: 2017/06
* Ji Bai He
+
108 Rue Olivier de Serres, 75015 Paris
+
Jiaozi and accompanying small dishes are great.
+
Last checked: 2016/03
* SUCREPICE
+
5 Rue d'Arras, 75005 Paris
+
M10: Cardinal Lemoine
+
Liang ban mian, but do ask "wei la, they are strong.
* Noodle No 1
+
54 rue Sainte Anne, 75002 Paris
+
--
** Soupe aux nouilles pimentées
--
* Noodle bar
+
31 Rue nationale, 75013 Paris, France
* Chez Shen
+
39 Rue au Maire, 75003 Paris, France
* Dosanko Larmen
+
40 Rue Sainte-Anne, 75002 Paris
+
Order the big portion at your own risk. :-)
+
Last checked: 2017/04
* Chez Mamie (外婆家)
+
18 Rue du Grenier-Saint-Lazare, 75003 Paris,
+
Last checked: 2017/06

[[resturants--france--marseille]]
==== Marseille 马赛

* Shanghai kitchen
+
14 Cours Jean Ballard, 13001 Marseille, France

[[restaurants--uk]]
=== United Kingdom 英国

Bibilography:

* https://www.honglingjin.co.uk/category/foods-and-restaurants-in-the-uk/chinese-restaurants

[[restaurants--uk--london]]
==== London 伦敦

[[restaurants--uk--london--little-wooden-hut]]
===== Little Wooden Hut 小木屋

Address:

....
Little Newport Street
WC2H 7JJ
....

Last checked: 2016/08

Not yet on Google maps so I don't know the number, but the street is very small so should be easy to find.

Chinese review: http://www.ukchinese.com/News/2016-05-07/15299.html

[[resturants--uk--london--murger-han]]
===== Murger Han

Address:

....
8A Sackville St
Mayfair, London
W1S 3EZ
....

Website: https://www.murgerhan.com/

Last checked: 2019/01

Cuisine: Xi'an

Biangbiang noodles with all extras zhongla are amazing!!! Niuroupaomo OK, but not exciting. Roujiamo not very interesting, too bland for my taste.

[[resturants--uk--london--tier-2]]
===== London tier 2

[[restaurants--uk--london--chinese-tapas-house-london]]
====== Chinese Tapas House

Address:

....
Little Newport Street
WC2H 7JJ
....

Not yet on Google maps so I don't know the number, but the street is very small so should be easy to find.

Jianbing guozi, interesting spicy fast food.

[[restaurants--uk--london--rice-coming-restaurant]]
====== Rice Coming Restaurant 米齐临

Rice noodles are good, and small dishes authentic.

Address: 10A Coptic St, Holborn, London WC1A 1NH

Last checked: 2019-04

Website: https://ricecoming.business.site/

[[restaurants--uk--cambridge]]
==== Cambridge 剑桥

[[restaurants--uk--cambridge--spring-restaurant]]
===== Spring Restaurant 春天

Address:

....
66 Mill Rd
CB1 2AS
....

Last checked: 2017/08

Spicy chicken with pasta and potatoes.

[[restaurants--uk--cambridge--seven-days]]
===== Seven Days 天天美食剑桥

Address:

....
66 Regent St
CB2 1DP
....

[[resturants--uk--cambridge--72-china]]
===== @72 China

Address:

....
72 Regent St
CB2 1DP
....

Douhuaniurou 豆花牛肉, kaoyu.

[[resturants--uk--cambridge--golden-house]]
===== Golden House

Address:

....
12 Lensfield Rd
CB2 1EG
....

Meicaikourou, luobo bing.

[[restaurants--uk--cambridge--1-1-rougamo]]
===== 1 + 1 Rougamo

Tier: 2

Address:

....
84 Regent St
CB2 1DP
....

Last checked: 2019/05

Roujiamo very good. Also good: broad noodles, 凉皮.

[[restaurants--uk--oxford]]
==== Oxford 牛津

[[restaurants--uk--oxford--a-taste-of-china]]
===== A Taste Of China 三秦百味

Tier: 2

https://goo.gl/maps/oERKCv6Q8a32

Last checked: 2019/03

Redamian good, Biangbiangmian not as interesting. Nice people working there. Two two seat tables only, mostly takeaway. Fair price.

[[restaurants--uk--oxford--xi-an]]
===== Xi'an

Tier: 3

https://goo.gl/maps/DrDCPKWnG2M2

Last checked: 2019/03

Not real Chinese food I'm afraid. Songshuyu was not cut correctly into stripes and too much liquid sauce. Sijidou beans not dry enough, maybe need more frying. Early immigration (1968, mentioned on menu), almost no Chinese clients. Nice decoration and environment.

[[restaurants--uk--sheffield]]
==== Sheffield 谢菲尔德

* China Red Restaurant
+
3 Rockingham Gate, Sheffield S1 4JD, United Kingdom
+
Last checked: 2016/06, shuizhuyu.

[[restaurants--brazil]]
=== Brazil 巴西

[[restaurants--brazil--sao-paulo]]
==== Sao Paulo 圣保罗

* Chuanxiangyuan Restaurante (川香园餐馆 )
+
\R. Barão de Iguape, 47 - Liberdade, São Paulo - SP
+
Eat the big fish dishes, they are worth it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuqi_feipian was not very good.
+
Free tea was good.
+
Rice could be better.
+
Owners are actually from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin , not Sichuan, as implied by the 川 in the name of the restaurant. GF told me that those big fish dishes are typical from there.
+
Last checked: 2016/01/09

[[restaurants--canada]]
=== Canada 加拿大

[[restaurants--canada--montreal]]
==== Montreal 加拿大蒙特利尔，

Last checked: 2016/01

* Cuisine Szechuan
+
2350 Rue Guy, Montréal, QC H3H 2M2, Canada
* Kanbai
+
1110 Rue Clark, Montréal, QC H2Z 1K3, Canada Good
* Délice oriental
+
1858 Rue Ste-Catherine O, Montréal, QC H3H 1M1

Not worth it:

* Chez Chili
+
1050B rue Clark

[[museum]]
== The best East Asian museums outside of China 中国以外最好的东亚博物馆

<<ciro-santilli>> liked these in order of best first. Keep in mind that he is especially interested in <<chinese-traditional-painting>>:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art[New York Metropolitan Museum of Art], New York, United States
** 2019-05 https://photos.app.goo.gl/pBR1BmqWgd2Xq7jT8
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guimet_Museum[Guimet Museum], Paris, France
** 2016-10-30 including Chinese Jade Temporary Exposition: https://goo.gl/photos/6F3nMNqtPrGASuMv5
** 2013-02 https://photos.app.goo.gl/aj1vRWEcoUqdvUG58
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum[British Museum], London, United Kingdom. Too much porcelain, too little painting.
** 2016-08 https://goo.gl/photos/brGPsCmLCD2cJsWb7

== Chinese television 中国电视

Modern themed television is generally crap due to <<censorship>>, but this leads to a big focus on ancient stuff, and some of it is amazing.

* 1994 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms_(TV_series) | https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/三国演义_(电视剧) The best  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms[Three Kingdoms 三国] adaptation of all time? Mind blowing. There seems to exist a version with full Chinese + English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_r3eWfTMDs&list=PLdAMXqGeRsOkXzuocRkBPhe5RhZ6RotGH&index=2

[[learn-chinese]]
== Tips to learn Chinese 学习中文方法建议

To read on the net, https://www.perapera.org/[Perapera] obviously, see also: <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese>>.

To overhear people and learn characters/new words Pleco: https://www.pleco.com/

It really hurts that there is no online Pleco, you have to go back and forth from cell phone to computer, is there anything as good online?

* https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/dictionary.php extremelly annoyng ads and limited list sizes, but good otherwise
* https://dict.naver.com/linedict/zhendict/#/cnen/home LINE dict, has many web scraped examples, but no sources back to those examples. Works, but a bit clunky.

Maybe some day something will be extracted from: https://github.com/skishore/makemeahanzi which jas a huge JSON of character data.

When you want to learn "how to say something in Chinese", the only valid routes are:

* does it have a Wikipedia page? Go on the English one then change language
* put an English sentence on https://translate.google.com/[Google Translate], then Google for it.
+
If it is a common word, it will give useless dictionary results, so search instead with `site:bbc.com` or `site:zhihu.com`.
+
Then find a sentence that contains the word written by a native Chinese, and understand the full sentence to confirm that it means what you want it to mean in a similar context.
+
Just using the Google translate directly will lead 70% to a weird/wrong/incomprehensible translation that no Chinese person would ever say.

Good Chinese content to consume to learn:

* 几分钟看完: illegal 10 minute summaries of movies with clips from the movies and a narrator speaking quickly instead of movie sounds.
+
Some have Chinese subtitles, e.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFSMvtS6SYQ and it is great content to learn from, because it is someone telling a not too boring story in a natural and clear way, with supporting images to help with context.

=== Chinese character sentence component mnemonic systems

Associate one word to each character/character component.

One good way to find mnemonics is to just Google for whatever random words you want to fit into a sentence. You end up learning fun things this way, and those make the best mnemonics.

Then to learn a new character, break it down into components, and create a sentence or short story that includes all the component words.

* <<characters>>: our own!!!!!
* https://rtega.be/chmn/ CC-BY-NO-SA but not clear way to contribute to it
* Proprietary books
** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0824833236 "Remembering Simplified Hanzi" by James W. Heisig and Timothy W. Richardson from 2008. This is the classic.
** https://www.amazon.com/dp/9881919339 STICK by Dr. Melanie Schmidt ed.
** https://www.amazon.com/dp/109565960X "Learn Chinese Characters: Easy Mnemonics to Memorize Hanzi: 400+ Characters, 700+ Vocabulary, 1300+ Practice Questions with Solutions" by L Castelluzzo

Japanese Kanji:

* proprietary:
** https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kanji-radicals-mnemonic-method/
** https://www.wanikani.com/

=== Lists of the most common characters and words

This is a good approach to tick off high frequency stuff you don't know you don't know:

* HSK word lists
** https://web.archive.org/web/20180211123634/http://www.hskhsk.com/word-lists.html go in the "(frequency order)" links
* Official character lists learned by native Chinese students per age group. TODO find exact lists.
** https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/6000/how-many-characters-do-chinese-pupils-know-at-different-ages

== Chinese cheat

Single author open source Pleco + "Remembering Simplified Hanzi" in a single .adoc file? Let's go.

We'd use https://rtega.be/chmn/ as basis if it weren't for the NO in CC-BY-NO-SA? But that NO is evil, what the heck does it even mean to gain money from something? Too restrictive.

Format will be very constant, database like. Would therefore be cool to parse it from the Asciidoctor into a proper database as a way to verify and allow third party usage.

Base mnemonic components can come more or less directly from the 214 Kangxi radicals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_radical

One key principle is that characters and words often don't have a well translatable meaning: the minimal always translatable unit is a sentence: <<sentences>>!

You can't fully learn a language by learning words and characters alone, you must learn sentences.

=== Characters

Format:

....
[[<character>]]
=== <character> (<pinyin>, <mnemonic name>)

Short forms: <<short-form>>, <<short-form>>

Mnemonic: <<mnemonic-story>>.

Words:

* <chinese-word-containing>
* <chinese-word-containing>

Characters:

* <character-containing>
* <character-containing>

Translations:

* <<english-word>>
** <<chinese-sentence-containing>>

Notes: <<random-text>>
....

Notes:

* `Translations` is only used when it is a single character word, if it goes inside a word, only the word will contain the sentence

[[top-part-of-每]]
==== Top part of 每 (, pistol)

Mnemonic: Can't find the freaking Unicode. It looks like a **pistol**.

Characters:

* 每 TODO each

[[top-part-of-存]]
==== Top part of 存 (, market stall)

Mnemonic: looks like one.

Characters:

* <<存>>

[[龶]]
==== 龶 (-, crown)

Mnemonic: the dot indicates something that stays on top of the head of a king (<<王>>)

Notes: there is no "proper" Chinese name for this, it is just known as "the top part of <<青>>" (青字頭) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/龶

Characters:

* <<青>>

[[巴]]
==== 巴 (ba1, Brazil)

Mnemonic: the first character of <<巴西>>

Characters:

* <<爬>>

Words:

* <<巴西>>

[[八]]
==== 八 (ba1, eight)

Short forms: 丷

Characters:

* <<单>>

[[白]]
==== 白 (bai2, white)

Mnemonic: the **sun** (<<日>>) is so bright on that **one** (<<一>>) day, that it was almost **white**

Characters:

* <<的>>

[[勹]]
==== 勹 (bao1, plastic wrap)

Mnemonic: Kangxi 20 is "wrap". So we choose plastic wrap as a specific type of wrapping that will give good mnemonics.

Characters:

* <<勺>>

[[本]]
==== 本 (ben3, potato)

Mnemonic: **one** (<<一>>) thing is always beloow a **tree** (<<本>>): **potato** roots

Characters:

* <<体>>

[[匕]]
==== 匕 (bi3, spoon)

Mnemonic: an ancient spoon, looks like this: https://read01.com/aAEn50x.html#.XnfZDN_niV4 "古人吃饭最早不用筷子，用的是“匕”，那“匕”是什么？

[[表]]
==== 表 (biao3, watch [device])

Mnemonic: imagine a soldier wearing **green** (<<龶>>) camouflage **clothes** (<<衣>>), and checking his **watch** to know if it is time to attack

Words:

* <<列表>>

[[卜]]
==== 卜 (bu3, magic wand)

Mnemonic: the kangxi description is "divination". Since this is completely unrelated to common contexts of modern people, we select a wand use a magic-related object that can be easily put into fun stories: a magic wand.

Characters:

* <<攴>>

[[不]]
==== 不 (bu4, not)

Mnemonic: unclear, possibly **magic wand** <<卜>>

Words:

* <<不幸>>

[[查]]
==== 查 (cha2, check)

Mnemonic: every **dawn** <<旦>>, men have to **check** if their penises are hard as **wood** <<木>>, and if so they have to stay in bed for a while longer because it is too embarrassing to walk out like that, see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_wood

Words:

* <<审查>>

[[车]]
==== 车 (che1, car)

Characters:

* <<轮>>

[[臣]]
==== 臣 (chen2, minister)

Characters:

* <<临>>

[[彳]]
==== 彳 (chi4, step)

Mnemonic: Kangxi 60.

Characters:

* <<很>>

[[辵]]
==== 辵 (chuo4, walk)

Short forms: ⻌,⻍,⻎

Characters:

* <<运>>

[[存]]
==== 存 (cun2, survive)

Mnemonic: the Jewish **child** (<<子>>) **survived** from the Nazis by hidding under a **market stall** (<<top-part-of-存>>)

Words:

* <<幸存>>

[[寸]]
==== 寸 (cun4, inch)

Characters:

* <<讨>>

[[大]]
==== 大 (da4, big)

Characters:

* <<犬>>

[[歹]]
==== 歹 (dai3, supervillain)

Mnemonic: that **evening** (<<夕>>), **one** (<<一>>) **supervillain** attacked us!

Characters:

* <<列>>

Words:

* <<歹人>>

[[旦]]
==== 旦 (dan4, dawn)

Mnemonic: **dawn** is when the **sun** (<<日>>) is raising over the horizon (<<一>>)

Characters:

* <<但>>

Words:

* <<元旦>>

[[但]]
==== 但 (dan4, but)

Mnemonic: I saw a **person** (<<人>>) walking at **dawn** (<<旦>>). It was beautiful, **but** why wouldn't they be sleeping instead?

[[多]]
==== 多 (duo1, many)

Mnemonic: one **wrap sandwitch** (<<勺>>) is fine for lunch, but two on too **many**

[[的]]
==== 的 (de, my)

Mnemonic: **my** penis looks like a **white** (<<白>>) **wrap sandwitch** (<<勺>>)

[[动]]
==== 动 (dong4, move)

Mnemonic: his **superpower** (<<力>>) is to **move** fart **clouds** (<<云>>) with his mind

Words:

* <<运动>>

[[刀]]
==== 刀 (dao1, knife)

Short forms: 刂,⺈

Characters:

* <<列>>
* <<尔>>

[[单]]
==== 单 (dan1, bill)

Mnemonic: that lunch **bill** cost as much as buying **eighty** (<<十>> <<八>>) rice **fields** (<<田>>)!

Words:

* TODO 买单

[[对]]
==== 对 (dui4, correct)

Mnemonic: to progress slowly, adding **inch** (<<寸>>) by inch, **again** (<<又>>) and again, is the **correct** way to progress

Characters:

* <<树>>

[[儿]]
==== 儿 (er2, son)

Characters:

* <<元>>

[[尔]]
==== 尔 (er3, you)

Mnemonic: I'll stab **you** with a **small** (<<小>>) knife (<<刀>>)

Characters:

* <<你>>

[[二]]
==== 二 (er4, two)

Characters:

* 元

[[肺]]
==== 肺 (fei4, lungs)

Mnemonic: he didn't have two **lungs**, but rather one **moon** (<<月>>) and one **lung** (<<巿>>)

Words:

* <<肺炎>>

[[巿]]
==== 巿 (fu2, lung)

Mnemonic: due to an infection, doctors had to dry up **one** (<<一>>) of his **lung** with a **towel** (<<巾>>) 

Characters:

* <<肺>>

[[干]]
==== 干 (gan1, dry)

Characters:

* <<幸>>

[[根]]
==== 根 (gen1, roots)

Mnemonic: **roots** one **root** (<<艮>>) plus one root and lots of **wood** (<<木>>)

[[艮]]
==== 艮 (gen4, root)

Mnemonic: radical of **roots** (<<根>>)

Notes: this is a Kangxi radical, but its English name "stopping" is just too close to the more important "stop" <<止>> and would cause confusion. So we just use the common phonetic compound **roots** (<<根>>) as the mnemonic. It was tempting to leave "root" for <<本>>, which looks perfectly like a root, but we did character first, and "potato" makes for even better mnemonics.

Characters:

* <<根>>

[[冠]]
==== 冠 (guan1, corona)

Mnemonic: when Queen Elizabeth was crowned, the **first** (<<元>>) thing they put a one **inch** (<<寸>>) **hajib** <<冖>> on her head, and then the **corona** of a Christian saint saint appeared on her head

Notes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona

[[禾]]
==== 禾 (he2, grain)

Mnemonic: imagine **one** <<一>> **grain** of rice coming out of **wood** (<<木>>)

Characters:

* <<私>>
* <<和>>

[[和]]
==== 和 (he2, harmonious)

Mnemonic: nothing is more **harmonious** than putting some **grains** <<禾>> in your **mouth** <<口>>

Characters:

* <<私>>
* <<和>>

[[很]]
==== 很 (hen3, very)

Mnemonic: **stepping** (<<彳>>) on a tree **root** (<<艮>>) is a **very** bad idea, it might be a tree spirit that gets angry and eats you!

[[火]]
==== 火 (huo3, fire)

Short forms: 灬

Characters:

* <<炎>>

[[巾]]
==== 巾 (jin1, towel)

Mnemonic: person carrying bath towel over shoulders.

Characters:

* <<巿>>

[[几]]
==== 几 (ji3, side table)

Characters:

* <<殳>>

[[口]]
==== 口 (kou3, mouth)

Chars:

* <<台>>
* <<和>>
* <<品>>

[[里]]
==== 里 (li3, mile)

Mnemonic: his **field** (<<田>>) streched over one **mile** (<<里>>), but it consisted of barren **soil** (<<土>>) without any plants

Characters:

* <<重>>
* <<理>>

[[理]]
==== 理 (li3, science)

Mnemonic: the **king** (<<王>>) Louis XIV was a big patron of the mectric system, which intends to improve **science** by removing useless units like the **mile** (<<里>>)

Words:

* <<物理>>
* <<理论>>

[[力]]
==== 力 (li4, superpower)

Characters:

* <<动>>

[[列]]
==== 列 (lie4, list)

Mnemonic: there must exist a **list** of **supervillains** (<<歹>>) with **knives** (<<刀>>) on the web? A knife-yielding supervillain **list**! https://techland.time.com/2010/09/03/top-ten-heroes-and-villians-with-big-knives/

Words: