Misheard

The original of that disturbingly upmarket bar I visited in Beijing a few days ago, the Shanghai Face, is located inside a small park in the foreign concessions district, in a building called the Rui Jin Guesthouse.

The first time I went there, receiving directions to meet an old friend over the mobile phone, I could have sworn she said "Raging Death House" - which sounds to me like a good name for a metal band. Or, indeed, perhaps a new musical genre?

I find amusement in the simplest things.

The hilarity of 'found objects' - eccentric uses of the English language, particularly - is an easy source of entertainment here in China.

The 'possible band name' game is a narrower variation of this, and for a long time it has been a favourite for SMS exchanges with my friend The Poet.

For example, there is also in Shanghai a chain of specialist pharmacies called The Sex Health Protection Monopoly - which sounds to me like it could have been one of those po-faced European electronic bands of the '80s.

Go on, you have a try.