Lulu Yan’s November column in That’s Beijing has a good bit about the strange naming tendencies of real estate developers:
“Whilst looking for an apartment, it has become clear to me that Beijing´s real estate developers are severely challenged in the English language department. Aside from the proliferation of New York place names – Manhattan Garden, Central Park, Upper East Side, Park Avenue and Soho to name just a few – there is an alarming tendency to just plain weirdness:
Yuppie International Garden
Top Aristocratic
Golf
Moma (as in New York´s Museum of Modern Art)
Vitality Building
Margarita Island
Genertime International Centre
Moderate Shangri-La
CEO
Gahood Garden
King Da International Apartments
Mega Hall
Wonderful Digital Jungle
A Firenze
Top Box
Palm Springs
Pink Box ER
Glory Vogue
American Rock
Latte Town
If all goes well however, I will file next month´s column from the apartment building with my favourite name: Merlin Champagne Town!”