Taiwanese Mandarin
As cross-strait relations began to improve in the early 21st century, direct interaction between mainland Chinese and Taiwanese increased, and some vocabulary began to merge, especially by means of the Internet. For example, the words "píngjǐng" 瓶頸 'bottleneck (in a production process, etc.)' and "zuòxiù" 作秀 'to grandstand, show off' were originally unique to Taiwanese Mandarin, but have since become widely used in mainland China. Likewise, Taiwanese Mandarin users have incorporated mainland phrases and speech patterns as well. For example, Taiwanese Mandarin traditionally uses the word "guǎndào" 管道 for a figurative "channel" (as in "communications channel", etc.), as opposed to "qúdào" 渠道 in the mainland, but "qúdào" has become common in Taiwan as well.