Can anyone decipher Japanese - or Chinese? - Silver Marks?

I am trying to research a small silver bowl for a friend. I welcome any kind of help at all... It is stamped on the bottom with the marks pictured below:

Not only do I not know even what language this is, I'm not even sure which way is up!

 

Looks the right way up to me, but unfortunately all I can tell you is that none of what's there are the Japanese characters for "pure silver" that I am familiar with. That may mean one of several things - it's Chinese instead, it's Japanese and not solid silver, or it's neither.

Given the look of the bowl I would think it is modern, though. In which case I would think that it should be marked with the numerical fineness and just the characters. Just my rambling...

What does your friend know about?

 

I assume he's tested it to be silver, but he doesn't know anything more than that about it.

 

The characters are 北京饭店，or Beijing hotel, a large famous hotel in Beijing China. I would say it belonged to the canteen in the hotel. Not a collectible