Signs of China

  Living in a country where the main form of communication is different from your native tongue can be an interesting and frustrating experience, especially if you do not speak that language. While I have learned some Mandarin I am very far from conversational, so I make due with translations. Some translation occurs through spoken and some is through written. While it is more difficult to share the fun of spoken translations with you I can share the written.

  I have come across many interesting and grammatically incorrect transitions that I could not help but take pictures of and laugh at. While almost all Chinese students have to learn English at some point in their schooling, they are mostly taught by none native speakers and never speak English to each other except when forced. Unless it is required for jobs or someone has great personal interest in it, English is not used once schooling is finished. It is more that the government requires English be taught (since it is on the College Entrance Exam), if not for this many would not learn. This learning environment does not help promote fluency or correct translations.

  While I was traveling to great tourist attractions I was slightly amazed at some of the translation mistakes considering they were committed at international tourist attractions and knowledge of English is required to attend universities. So, I took pictures and laughed to myself. While it is fun to laugh at mistakes that, to you, seem to be painfully obvious, one must remember to always be encouraging to learners of other languages. They are trying to communicate to you in a second language, you are not making the effort, they are. 

  If you have never learned a second language you have no right to poke fun of those who are, discouraging them . . . unless of course it is in a professional setting and they should have people who do not make those types of mistakes. In all seriousness be kind and patient with language learners if possible and if you see or hear a silly mistake make sure they know you are not laughing at them but just at the awesomeness of what they are saying. Some of my Chinese friends have said some pretty awesome mistakes at which I have laughed and I have said some not so awesome mistakes in Mandarin at which they laughed. While different language interaction can be hair-pulling-out-frustrating it can also lead to some good laughs so I give you the translations. 

  I will write the English words above each picture as they are typed in the picture. Some of them I put in not for grammar mistakes but just for the awesomeness of the translation, like the first one.

The walnut ice grass

 Grass is resting

Leave them please

 Fitness Sauare

It is a green area with flowers and trees around and it is a best place for tourises to exercise themselves by using the fieness apparatus. The century-old Ginko will witness the happiness that the square brings to tourists.

 Scent Library

(it was the name of a perfume store, thought it was ingenious)

 Can you find the Sandwiche?

Here is steep prohibited to climb.

 Keep Your Steps off the Plants

 Imported Red Wine

Frence

 Warm Suggestion

No riding on the bridge, push only

Be careful!

 Flush Please

Please thrown into the dustbin waste

Please take away your belongings

 Please help us protect the grass or more people to enjoy

 LOOKOUT, KNOCK HEAD

Several translations on money pouches you could buy (excuse the word on the third one)

 Their own Money

Will known for the great kindness

Whole day I'm f**king busy only get few money

Elder sister not worng Im never it right

 No chasing

Do Not Pop out the Head or Other Part of the Body

 Spicy Jew's Ear

 No smoking

Keep clean

Beware of Slipperv floor

Keep your valuables in view

 Tiny grass is smiling to you and asking

you to make the round of your road

 Comeing

 Dead Inside

(You will find many Chinese people wearing shirts with English words on them. I am positive that they either do not know what they mean or think it is cool, more for the former than the later. I do not take pictures of all the shirts/clothing because I do not like taking pictures of people and also they move too quickly. I did see a kid the other day, maybe seven years old, with the word F**ck on his shirt and wondered if the parents knew what word they were dressing their child in. 

 BAKED SWEET

potato mud With Cheese

 The stairs

 Be out by Tourist Train

From Hear Forward

(can you guess the meaning of that one without context?)

 This one is not so much the words as how they are written. Mandarin you can read from top to bottom, right to left since the characters make it easier, as long as you write the characters correctly. Because you can do this in Mandarin they wrote the English sideways instead of how it should be written.

 This one you cannot not see but it is the blue green sign. (my favorite)

The oil temperature is too high to pay attention to safety.

While this has no words I have to add it. Since most toilets in China are squat toilets they have to put signs in some bathroom to show some individuals how to correctly use a western toilet. The western toilet is a rather unnatural way to go to the bathroom, squatting is naturally better for us, if you do not believe me just Google it.

  There are some of the laughs I have had while in China, hoped you enjoyed them as well.
  I also want to add that if there are any grammar mistakes in my own writing please laugh at the irony of it.

My Month Long Travels Part 10

  I returned back to Beijing to meet up with a friend visiting from the United States (home). I was also ready to see some well known Chinese landmarks.

 The first place we headed the day after airport pick up was the Tiananmen Square to view the lovely portrait of Mao ZeDong. It is well know in western history because of the tragic events that have occurred here, apparently it is not as well know in Chinese history. If you do not know who Mao is you can see a picture of him below. Also, he was the leader of China following World War II. You can find people who think he was a great leader and helped his country and you can find those who lay many atrocities at his feet.

  After viewing Mao we headed into the Forbidden City, which is not what the Chinese refer to it as, they call it the 'Palace Museum.' When I was telling English speaking Chinese individual that I was going to the 'forbidden city' they gave me strange looks followed by an 'oh' of understand when I explained further. It would be strange hearing what foreigners call your countries major attractions. The Forbidden City is located just behind the square. It was once the palace of the Chinese Emperor and contains many, many buildings. We wondered around for about four hours and did not see all there was to see. 

  The passageway below is the center gate/tunnel into the palace. There are two slightly smaller entrances on either side (see second picture). The center entrance was reserved exclusively for the emperor, the only other person who was able to pass through that door was the future empress on her wedding day. Unfortunately we were not able to pass, I did try but a guard stopped me. 

   This building was the main building in the palace complex. It was where the Emperor lived and conducted his business. Surrounded by a huge stone courtyard, it did not look very homey to me. Would not suggest living there. Surrounding this huge courtyard were then many, many buildings making the entire palace much larger. These buildings were actually a collection of different complexes or palaces that were connected together around the main Palace. In these buildings lived others of the royal family and court, from eunuchs to concubines from consorts to servants.

   The throne room or I believe it is.

   The decoration in all the buildings were really impressive. The details were intense. You can see that from the picture of the ceiling below.

   This is the royal wedding chamber. The character that you see draw on the wall is that character that you will see at all Chinese weddings today, especially on the wedding invitations.

   Once you left the main courtyard you wondered through passages like the one below from complex to complex within the Forbidden City. While you can wonder without a map to the point of confusion everything was built in a specific order and for a specific reason.

   From outside the Palace, you can see the moat that goes around it.

  The next day we meet up with a friend of mine who lives in Beijing and all headed out to a section of the Great Wall called Badaling. Since the wall is so long there are many different section you can see, the main tourist ones have been rebuilt but you can still go to sections of that wall that are essentially rubble. During different periods in Chinese history stones from the Great Wall have been scavenged for other building projects. 

  It was a very windy day which did not make the climb any easier. I say climb for a reason because at some places it was as if I was climbing up a wall. I sat down and scooted for some of the sections while I had to lean forward using my hand to get up other parts. It was, without a doubt, my workout for the day.

   You can see the steepness of the wall in greater detail in the the next two pictures.

   That evening we had dinner with my friend, his girlfriend and his father. They took us to a restaurant were we orders a dishes which they highly recommended: mashed potatoes with blueberries. It was really, really good.

  What you see in the following pictures is a stick of fruit covered in sugar. I had previously talked about this when I went to Harbin, but this one was actually good. As a note, the fruit that you see on the very top is a tomato which is eaten more as a the fruit it truly is instead of the vegetable that we make it in America.

  That evening we went out for Peking Duck, the specialty of Beijing. If you go to Beijing and do not try this you have failed as a tourist, or you just do not like duck. Chinese people will keep telling you to try it. It is actually very good and there are several different way to eat it: in a wrap, in a soup, dipped in sugar, and in a roll. I was able to meet up with my friend from the Netherlands that I meet in Datong. She found a place that had good reviews and although it was pricey it was delicious. She is traveling around Asia right now and takes some amazing pictures, better than mine, if you want to you can take a look at them, here is the link: http://moniquejoris.com/tagged/asia.  She puts them up as postcards so they are just glimpses of Asia, the ones for Beijing are around her 50th postcard.

  The following day we did nothing. It was the eve of the Chinese New Year so we relaxed and watched movies all day. We went to bed that night and were woken up around 11:30 that night by the sound of fireworks going off all around the city including right outside our building. We were on the 20-something floor therefore we had a great view of the fireworks from all around the city. I, for some silly reason, had forgotten how much the Chinese love to set off fireworks on holidays and special occasion and was wondering what was going on until I remembered what day it was. 

   The next day we went to the Beijing Zoo to see Pandas! They are quite lazy animals.

   The next day we went to the Temple of Heaven. I was told that it is somewhat of a tradition to go to a temple after New Years, so we went, along with many, many other Chinese.

   The Temple complex was quite large and laid out like a park. We were able to wonder around enjoying the nature.

   Here are some pictures I took while wondering around a touristy part of Beijing.

  The Bird's Nest Stadium that China build for the 2008 Olympics. 

   The last day in Beijing we went to an Art District of Beijing called 789 Art Zone. It is the artsy part of town and several small art museums are located there. When we went it had an abandoned feel to it with not many people around. Guessing it was due to the Chinese holiday. The entire area was covered in graffiti, except the shops. Here were a few I thought were neat, strange or funny.

   This one made me laugh, just the wording and location.

After the Art District we headed to catch our plane to Seoul, South Korea.