Police turn to kids for help in runaway child case

Two primary school pupils worked as mediators between police and a runaway child in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, on Monday last week.

Local police in Shizishan police station found a child roaming unaccompanied by an adult and took him back to their station. But they could not get a single word from the lost little one. Police recruited two pupils from an adjacent primary school to come and play with the kid, who helped their lost contemporary relax.

Later the errant child told his new friends that he left home because he had made some mistakes and was afraid of being punished by his parents.

Policemen then accompanied the child home and praised the other two pupils as highly skilled negotiators and psychological consultants.

(Chengdu Evening News)

Trains to Guiyang lost in translation

Do you understand what "expensive sun" means? Gui, a Chinese character means expensive in English, and yang, another Chinese character means sun in English. However, when the two characters are written as Guiyang, it is a place name, capital of Guizhou province, not an expensive sun.

Recently, some people posted online the English translation of Guiyang on trains, which they said was a mistake.

The Guiyang railway office said it had noted the mistake and would correct it.

(Chengdu Commercial Daily)

(China Daily 05/14/2008 page7)