Hehe, I did see signs with pinyin in beijing in late 1990s. once i lost my way
at the wangfujing area when looking for some place. The street signs at that
area had pinyin and north/south directions on them. and there was a map of the
area nearby. It was very nice. and i remember the signs as white background
with black characters.
but the street signs around pku area seemed to be green. I cannot remember
clearly now. I don't think there was pinyin on them.
They probably put pinyin on all of the