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Tones

The use of tones in Cantonese can be quite tricky for an English speaker. The ‘tone’ is the pitch value of a syllable when you pronounce it. The same word, pronounced with different tones can have a very different meaning, eg gwat means ‘dig up’ and gwàt means ‘bones’.

In our simplified pronunciation guide there are six tones: high, high rising, level, low falling, low rising and low. They can be divided into two groups: high and low pitch. High-pitch tones involve tightening your vocal muscles to get a higher note, whereas lower-pitch tones are made by relaxing the vocal chords to get a lower note. These tones are represented as accents and diacritics as shown in the list below; the low tones are all underlined in the Romanisations. Tones in Cantonese fall on vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and on n.

à high

á high rising

a level

à low falling

á low rising

a low

SOCIAL

Meeting People

Going Out

Local Lingo

PRACTICAL

Accommodation

Banking

Days

Internet

Numbers

Phones & Mobile Phones

Post

Shopping

Transport

EMERGENCIES

HEALTH

Symptoms

FOOD & DRINK

Useful Phrases

Food Glossary

FISH & SHELLFISH

MEAT & POULTRY

RICE & NOODLE DISHES

SAUCES

SOUPS

VEGETARIAN DISHES

CANTONESE DISHES

DIM SUM

CHIU CHOW DISHES

NORTHERN DISHES

SHANGHAINESE DISHES

SICHUAN DISHES

BEHIND THE SCENES

* * *

THIS BOOK

THANKS

OUR READERS

* * *

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THIS BOOK

This edition of Hong Kong & Macau was written by Andrew Stone, Chung Wah Chow and Piera Chen; Andrew and Chung Wah wrote the previous edition along with Reggie Ho. This guidebook was commissioned in Lonely Planet’s Oakland office and produced by the following:

Commissioning Editor Emily K Wolman

Coordinating Editors Carolyn Boicos, Simon Williamson

Coordinating Cartographers Mark Griffiths, Corey Hutchison

Coordinating Layout Designer Jacqui Saunders

Senior Editors Helen Christinis, Katie Lynch

Managing Cartographers David Connolly, Alison Lyall

Managing Layout Designer Sally Darmody

Assisting Editors Pete Cruttenden, Cathryn Game

Assisting Cartographers Enes Basic, Eve Kelly

Assisting Layout Designers Jim Hsu, Indra Kilfoyle

Cover research Paul Mosij, lonelyplanetimages.com

Internal image research Sabrina Dalbesio, lonelyplanetimages.com

Language Content Laura Crawford

Project Manager Chris Love

Thanks to Lucy Birchley, David Carroll, Daniel Corbett, Rebecca Lalor, Raphael Richards, Sarah Sloane, Ji Yuanfang

Cover photographs Lippo Centre in Admiralty, Hong Kong, Michael Coyne/LPI (top); opera performer, Hong Kong, Glow Images/Photolibrary (bottom).

Internal photographs Bohemian Nomad Picturemakers/Corbis (#1); David Crausby/Alamy (middle); dbimages/Alamy (#2); ImageState/Alamy (#2); Rudy Sulgan/Corbis (#1). All other photographs by Lonely Planet Images: Andrew Burke (top); Michael Coyne (#5), (#1), (#3); Greg Elms (#2), (#2), (#3), (#4), (#1), (#3), (#1), (#2), (#5), (#6), (bottom), (bottom); Manfred Gottschalk (#3); Christopher Groenhout (bottom); Richard I’Anson (#5), (top); Ray Laskowitz (#4), (top), (middle); Holger Leue (#4); Chris Mellor (bottom); Geoff Stringer (#3), (#6), (top); Jane Sweeney (bottom), (top); Phil Weymouth (bottom); Brent Winebrenner (top); Lawrence Worcester (#2).

All images are copyright of the photographer unless otherwise indicated. Many of the images in this guide are available for licensing from Lonely Planet Images: www.lonelyplanetimages.com.

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THANKS

ANDREW STONE

My fellow authors Chung Wah and Piera helped me out in so many ways on this title with ideas, suggestions, contacts, enthusiasm and hard work. I am indebted to them. Thanks guys. Thanks also to my commissioning editors Rebecca Chau and Emily Wolman for their patience and help throughout. To Ling Lui, John Wong and everyone else who were so generous with their time and assistance. To Jaki Doreen and Marianne, my love and thanks for everything during write-up in Sydney. Finally, thanks to Tonya