Com­mit No Nuisance

For­bid To Beam On

I spot­ted the first sign on the Great Wall. The sign in Chi­nese says: 保护文物 — 请勿便溺。 This can be trans­lated as “Pro­tect the her­itage — don’t soil”. Was the orig­i­nal mean­ing of the sign too harsh for for­eign­ers? We are here just encour­aged to “com­mit no nui­sance”!

I found the other one on the sub­way door. In Chi­nese, it says: 禁止倚靠。 This means “don’t rest/ lean on (the door)”. Which is under­stand much bet­ter than “beam on”!

Lux­u­ri­ant Grass­land, Please Don’t Trample

Please, Don’t Bomb Into The Ash Here!

I found that one when vis­it­ing the Ming Tombs, nearby the Great Wall. In Chi­nese, this is:芳草萋萋，踏之何忍。 A bet­ter trans­la­tion would be “don’t step on the lux­u­ri­ant grass”. Now, let’s look at the pic­ture again: does it look like a patch of lux­u­ri­ant grass to you? I thought so.

This one was my last Ching­lish sign in Bei­jing: it was at the air­port, in the smok­ing room. To be hon­est, when I first read it in Eng­lish, I didn’t have a clue of what it meant. Now, the Chi­nese is: 请不要把烟灰弹入此外。 Lit­er­ally, “don’t throw your ashes in there” (“there” was the air conditioning’s grille). Why “bomb”? I think this is just com­mon air­port paranoia…

Please Don’t Climb The Rockeries

Pro­tect­ing The Wild Ani­mals Is Pro­tect­ing Mankind Ourselves

I found that sign at the Sum­mer Palace. I’m being picky here, because “rock­ery” is a real word(just British). Still, it made me laugh.

This one was found on the Great Wall as well, nearby the Bear Park. In Chi­nese, it says: 保护野生动物，就是保护人类自已。 Basi­cally, “Wildlife pro­tec­tion is also the pro­tec­tion of mankind”.

Take Care Of Head

Be Care Of The Distance

This one was taken nearby the Silk Mar­ket. In Chi­nese, this is: 小心碰头. This can be lit­er­ally trans­lated as “don’t bump your head”, or bet­ter, “watch your head”.

The last one is per­haps the most mys­te­ri­ous of all. I found it in the mid­dle of a street and it says: 注意距离。The trans­la­tion is almost accu­rate: it would say it’s more like “watch the dis­tance”. But what did they mean? Could that be “main­tain an appro­pri­ate dis­tance” and thus refer to peo­ple rather than, as I had assume, to traf­fic? Was this sign encour­ag­ing the “个人区域” (“per­sonal space”)? This is a mys­tery to me!

In all fair­ness, I must admit there are less “Ching­lish” signs than let’s say ten years ago! Yet, they still make me laugh…

Related arti­cles:

1. The Tem­ple Of Heaven (天坛)
2. Old Bei­jing (老北京)
3. Chi­na­town In Ottawa
4. Tianan­men Square (天安门广场)
5. Bei­hai Park (北海公园)