A sign in the restroom at Beijing’s Olympic Park explaining that the faucets are automatic

During my last visit in 2006, my friends and I joked that I could make a full-time job for myself traveling around China and correcting bad English translations.  Well, I kind of figured that, post Olympics, most of the signage would be accurate.

As it turns out, there are still a few kinks to work out, even at Olympic Park.

The addition of the word “please” makes me inclined to do as I’ve been told, except that I’m not sure what I’m being told here

I find the imperfect English on these signs endearing, like a remnant of the China I know that is modernizing and changing, but a little unevenly.

I kind of feel like the sculptor maybe should have run this through some sort of grammar checker before etching it into stone

Still, part of me really wanted to take a giant red marker to the place and just make a few edits to some of the signage.

Progress.

Well, I don’t need to fix all the signs.