Mandarin Idioms used in Taiwan

Jī fēi gǒu tiào 雞飛狗跳

Shawn M. Rill ● Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Traditional: 雞飛狗跳

One that made me laugh out loud was 鸡飞狗跳 ji1 fei1 gou3 tiao4, used to describe a situation that is chaotic or out of control.

I love the graphical images that it conjures up in my imagination when I think of the literal meaning "chickens fly, dogs jump".

The political situation has been chickens flying and dogs jumping all over the place lately, sort of thing. I can picture the mayhem of a few hundred chickens and several dozen dogs running amok and chasing each other around all over the delegates and fixtures during a session in parliament :o).

Source: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=20848&PN=46

Dōng shí xī sù 東食西宿

Shawn M. Rill ●

東食西宿
dong/East eat/food xi/West sleep
There was once a woman who was ready to be married of. There were two suitable gentlemen. Mr Dong (East) and Mr Xi (West). Dong was ugly but had a lot of money, Xi was handsome but poor. The poor woman didn't know what to do. Her parents told her to decide herself. Being a clever girl she...
Chose to spend the day at Dong's house and eat there but at night go to Xi's house to sleep.
It could be used to describe... 1) A greedy person. 2) A difficult decision. 3) A slag/slut.