Mandarin Monday: The Next Station Is...? Mar 15, 2021 2:30 pm | 1 comment | 186 reads Mandarin Monday is a weekly column where we help you improve your Chinese by detailing learning tips, fun and practical phrases, and trends. As a foreign 打工人 salaryman or salarywoman living in Beijing, it's not every day that you're going to discuss the US presidential election with your colleagues, or find yourself in desperate need of knowing every different dialect spoken across China. There is, however, one thing you'll need to be familiar with, even before stumbling your way through a menu and ordering food in Chinese. That is, the names of Beijing's subway stations, lest you find yourself 20km away from your office on Monday morning.