text: chinese: how do you pronounce "tang yuan" and "yuanziao" (glutinous rice dumplings)??? pinyin (or phonetically) with tone numbers please  which is more common when asking for these in restaurant or grocery??  (for example if i wanted them with sesame seed filling)  thanks tang yuan (湯圓) is pronounced "tang1 yuan2." yuan xiao (元宵) is pronounced "yuan2 xiao1."  since i don't know where you live, i can only tell you what they look like, and you may have to find them yourself. if you live in taiwan, however, tang yuan is more common than yuan xiao in markets, but both can be found in supermarkets. the one with fillings is yuan xiao. tang yuan is the one with the colors red and white.