All the Chinese I encountered in two weeks in the Netherlands.
1. This is a Chinese store near my former high school, named after the Chinese city Wenzhou (温州). When I entered, the owner was calling (via WeChat) with his family in China and later we spoke about living in China and the Netherlands (he’s already been here for 25 years). I must have visited this store in my high school time, only now I can fully read its facade.
2. 皇城酒家. The Dutch name is Kota Radja, a very common name for Chinese-Indonesian restaurants. They offer a mixture of Chinese (mostly Cantonese) & Indonesian food, because Indonesia is a former colony. What Kota Radja means in Indonesian, 皇城 means in Chinese: Imperial City.
These Chinese names are identical to their Dutch names:
3. 熊猫酒楼, ‘Panda’
4. 钻石酒楼 (but in Traditional), same as Dutch ‘Diamond’
5. 新北京酒楼, same in Dutch, ‘Nieuw Peking’
6. 台湾酒楼 (but in Traditional), ‘Taiwan’
7. 长城酒楼 (traditional), like the Dutch name ‘Long wall’
8. I guess there’s a story behind this one but it’s not obvious. The Chinese name is 张家厨 (Zhang family chef), but the Dutch name means “Tall chef”.
9. In my hometown, a baker with the sign ‘饼家’. It doesn’t show up in Pleco but it does seem to be a common Chinese moniker for a bakery. (Below it is Russian or Ukrainian.)
10. 东方行 in traditional (Oriental Way), a supermarket chain across the country.
11. 友谊行 (Friendship way), gifts and kitchen utensils.
12. 梨园酒家, similar to the Dutch name ‘Lee (Li) garden’. It’s all simplified except for the second character?
13. Elements with Chinese characters in an interior store. The first is a bit of a misformed 金.
14. Massage and acupuncture, and a Christian church or center with services in Chinese, in the city of Groningen.
