Shanghai serious about proper English signs

If you see a sign at a Chinese airport asking you to "stand outside one bowl of rice noodle", it actually means "keep a distance of one meter from the person standing in front of you".

It's a funny translation and one of many that are seen in China. Signs in some toilets, for example, read "easy come, easy go", which are intended to mean "come in a rush, leave with a flush". Then there are the many shops named "translation error" - their owners simply used online translation software and had the names printed without consulting an English speaker.

"Some word-to-word translations are really hilarious, especially in some restaurants whose English menus suggest very eerie ingredients," said Ma Ding of the General Consulate of Finland in Shanghai. "But they have also brought a lot of laughs to us."