# What does "Shan Dong" mean?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-shan-dong-mean/661320>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 19, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-shan-dong-mean/661320 "2013-06-19T01:27:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-shan-dong-mean/661320/1 "2013-06-19T01:27:53Z")

</div>

Just tried a terrific Chinese restaurant in Oakland – man, the hot & spicy eggplant is absolutely awesome.

I’m just wondering what the restaurant’s name means: “Shan Dong?”

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-shan-dong-mean/661320/2 "2013-06-19T01:30:44Z")

</div>

Shan Dong is a region in China.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-shan-dong-mean/661320/3 "2013-06-19T02:09:10Z")

</div>

[Shandong - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandong) Literally “mountain east”. China has lots of states/provinces named \<geographical feature\> \<direction\>. Shandong/[Shanxi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanxi), [Guangdong](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangdong)/[Guangxi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangxi) and many more. I wonder how they know which mountain they’re referring to / how they don’t end up with 2 Shandongs.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-shan-dong-mean/661320/4 "2013-06-19T16:57:02Z")

</div>

Well, the first Shandong is very, very old. Once they had it, they just remembered it for the future and didn’t re-use it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Octans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Octans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octans)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-shan-dong-mean/661320/5 "2013-06-19T21:14:55Z")

</div>

Let’s just say that eggplant wasn’t what you thought it was.