The Pop Culture Travel Guide

Don't Turn Over in China

Where: China

9/12/2007 at 9:15 AM
Tags: , (all tags)

We've had plenty of experience with seeing those pictures of weird Chinglish: the supposedly helpful signs and directions across China that are so badly translated we have no idea what they mean.

Over at Peter Greenberg's blog they've taken the helpful next step of explaining what instructions like "Unrecycling" and "No turning over" actually mean. While it's sometimes a bit of a letdown to learn that the original Chinese meaning behind these odd phrases is usually very ordinary--"no turning over", for example, was just a mistranslation of "no climbing"--the info still makes for some pretty hilarious reading.

Our personal favorite is from a sign near the Terracotta Army site in Xian that "Asks you on own initiative to walk according to the scenic areaturnover line"; if you translate the Chinese, it simply says "Please follow the marked path through the scenery." Of course.

Related Stories:
· Signs in China [Peter Greenberg]
· Peter Greenberg's Brand New Travel Blog [Jaunted]
· The Old Weak Ill Disability and Pregnant Lounge [Jaunted]

[Photo: KhE_?]


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