Bad Language

I imagine that native speakers of Chinese enjoy a few laughs over the meaningless Chinese characters that are used to decorate t-shirts and cushion covers in the rest of the world. They are probably especially amused when people actually tatoo random words onto themselves: "wind" or "east" or "endurance". Similarly I love the mangled English language posted on signs and shopfronts everywhere in China. I mean really, there are so many native speakers here, many of them actually teaching English, that it should be possible to find someone to copy edit, especially when you are about to print thousands of brochures or make signs that millions of foreign tourists will read. But apparently not. So visitors to Du Fu's thatched cottage in Chengdu are given a "warm prompt" not to touch anything, and are offered a choice of trash cans labelled "recycle" and "unrecycle". And when I first visited the Great Wall in 1985 I came away with a souvenir ticket that stated "I have mounted the Great Wall".

Here are some of my other favourites and I will keep this post updated as I spot more.

Hairdressers shop: "Workmanlike Century Scissors"
Noodle restaurant: "Face Maintaining Noodle"
Sign on hotel step: "Caution the Stair"
Sign in hotel bathroom: "Please slip carefully"

Sign on pedestrian walkway:

This one is a boutique!
At an antiques market:
Some poor woman is going to buy this sweater and walk around town in it: