Tiolet sign, Chitou rest stop, China

Not-so-bad Chinese-English Translations

Felix Wong's avatar
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I just finished a 10-day tour of the Fujian and Guangdong provinces, and judging by the signs I’d say the Chinese are getting better at English translations. This was good news for me since I cannot identify more than, oh, 30 Chinese characters and heavily rely on English words and pictures to know where the heck I am going in China.

Below are examples of some of the more odd translations I encountered. They are not so bad, yes? I actually only encountered one truly terrible, albeit somewhat humorous, English sign that was posted at the Quanzhou Kaiyuan Monastery. Apparently, no bonfires are allowed there, nor is slapstick behavior (good to know).

I encountered more English-challenged signs two years ago, so maybe Chinese authorities are wising up in this age where you could easily outsource translation tasks to native speakers on the internet (e.g., on sites such as fiverr.com) for a few bucks.

No striding sign
"No striding." I guess walking is ok.
Man bathroom sign
Many bathrooms in China were labeled "Man" instead of "Men" as in the U.S.
Male bathroom sign
"Male" was another common bathroom sign.
Tiolet sign, Chitou rest stop, China
This "tiolet" should have been painted purple. Then it could have been a violet tiolet.
Ticket Channel sign
Not a ticket aisle; a ticket channel.
Inductive Washing sign
I think this faucet used an IR proximity sensor instead of an induction switch (which generally requires a metal material to work well). So I'm guessing something was lost in translation.
Quanzhou Kaiyuan Monastery rules
The posted rules for the Quanzhou Kaiyuan Monastery were the only truly bad English translations I encountered.
Please don't touch me metro sign
This sign on the Guangzhou metro was translated well and I thought it offered good advice so I am including it here.