北京 – the funny part

After spending a couple of days in Beijing, the sarcastic 外国人 in me started showing through again. I’ll demonstrate showing you some pictures, all of which were taken on 王府进大街 (Wangfujin Avenue, a big shopping street).

1) Directions?

If you have ever heard of “CHINES ECR EATURE” or “PHOTOG RA PHIC EQU IP MENT”, please raise your hand. And if you need a wrapping service for your presents, please go see the “THE BOX WRAPPER HAS”.

2)  The perfect gift for you 3 year old daughter…

You love your daughter, you have just been to 北京, why not show your love with this special t-shirt?

While you are in Beijing, the context may save you, but try wearing this t-shirt in an English-speaking speaking country in a park at night…

3) The Supermarket

Just a couple of shops down from the t-shirt store, I found this gem:

I wonder what the specialty is… probably spelling foreign words without using particular vowels. “Look, Ma! No ‘a’s!”

4) Those damned word boundaries again…

At least here, they have an explanation (well, sort of): They try to make the letters fit onto the panels. But they did a better job on 3)

5) Dictionary words, what a pain

Some words are easily recognizable, even when the spelling is incorrect. This one took me a minute and I first was thinking of “wrath”, but how can you sell that?

Only after looking at 手表, I understand that they meant “watch”. This is really pitiful… grammatical errors is one thing, but dictionary words? Also, they got the plural in handicrafts right, but will the supermarket be able to survive by selling just one watch and one shaving razor? Finally, thanks for providing a second translation of “toy”, didn’t get it the first time…

6) Ingenious parent-kid bike

Found this little germ on 北池子大街 (Beichizi Avenue), north of 天安门东站 (Tian’an men East station): an electric bike with a built-on kid’s seat. Given the traffic in Beijing, 新日 (new day) sounds more like a family prayer while riding.

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