They spelled it out, in case you couldn't tell by the tea cups
23 February 2010, 09:00I found this on the way back to my hotel from 7-Eleven after retrieving a soda and some meat-on-a-stick for supper. The character depicted here in tea cups means “tea” (meta). It took me a while to find the real meaning; I thought it was “prosperity” for the longest. I liked the idea of putting tea cups on the wall, and knowing now that the character means “tea” is all the better.
I finally found this character on Wikipedia, in the Chinese Tea Culture entry. “茶“ (”chá“ in pinyin) is the character in the image, and means tea. But the closest I had been able to find until today was “荣“ (”róng“ in pinyin) which is used to make the word for prosperity. Hence my misleading early on. I never drank tea here, so I have no idea how theirs is. I always got my tea from Hongfu. But this place certainly gets the Creativity In Advertising award.
~Jonathan