Ain’t it the truth.
Jìzhě zuórì (5 rì) qiánwǎng Dōngguǎn shìqū mǒu qìchē zǒngzhàn bànshì, zài zhàn qián guǎngchǎng xià le gōngjiāochē biàn xúnzhǎo shòupiàotīng wèizhi. Zǒuláng shàng xuángguà zhe yīkuài jùdà de zhǐshì pái, zhǐmíng chángtú shòupiàotīng de wèizhi, dàn Hànzì xiàmian pèishàng de Yīngwén ràngrén dàchī-yījīng, hèrán xiě zhe: Ticketing Hell (Zhōngwén zhíyì wéi “shòupiào dìyù”). Yuánlái shì dàtīng de Yīngwén “Hall” bèi wùxiě wéi “Hell” (dìyù).
Zhè kuài zhǐshì pái de bèimiàn xiě zhe bùtóng de nèiróng, Zhōngwén shì “xíngrén tōngdào”, Yīngwén xiězuò “Pedestrain chenneling”. Zhuānyè rénshì gàosu jìzhě, “chenneling” bùzhī hé yì, shì zìjǐ shēngzào de cíhuì, kěnéng shì xiǎng xiě “channeling” ér chūxiàn le pīnxiě cuòwù, dàn “channeling” shì “gōuqú” de yìsi, “tōngdào” yībān xiězuò “channels”.
Zài guǎngchǎng de lìngyī cè, gōngjiāo zhàn de zhǐshì pái shàng bùzài xiě Yīngwén, érshì gǎiyòng Pīnyīn, dànshì xiězuò “gongjiaozan”, “zhàn” zì de pīnyīn yěshì cuòwù de.
Yǒu chéngkè gàosu jìzhě, zhèxiē zhǐshì pái yǐjing guà le hǎojǐ nián le, yīzhí méiyǒu huàn xiàlái. Rúguǒ wàibīn kànjian, bùzhī zuò hé gǎnxiǎng.
source: Yīngwén pīnxiě cuòwù: yīzìzhīchā shòupiàotīng biàn “dìyù” (英文拼写错误 一字之差售票厅变“地狱”), Guǎngzhōu Rìbào, November 4, 2006
A small typo: D?ngw?n should be D?nggu?n.
Thanks for your note. But is that really a typo? The original gives “??”. But I barely know Guangdong, having spent a total of about five days there about twelve years ago.
The character ? is pronouced w?n in ??(smiling) but gu?n in ??. It is also pronounced gu?n in some rare cases.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongguan
Many thanks for getting back to me on that. I’ve now made the correction you gave.