Off my Head

Greetings from Dali again. I am working my way back South from the cold North - at around 3000meters, the temperature of Shangri-La reminded me too much of home...
And happy Easter all! Easter really doesn't show locally, but then even dates and days of the week don't really mean that much. But I think it's Easter Monday now, so enjoy your holidays everyone.

Well, we all know Chinese English translations can provide hours of harmless fun! In a country, which has such an intricate system of writing, where a single line or dash can change the meaning of the sign, it is strange how difficult our few Western letters seem to be. At the very least, letters get substituted for eachother or left out or added, thereby subtly changing the message (a guide to the monastry of Shangri-La informed the reader that a century ago the area was provenly very religious since "nearly every family had a monkey or a nun").

Yunnan however is more savvy than much of China in this respect, and menu entries such as Blood Reducing Pressure Peanuts, or Health Evaluation Chicken are rare.

However, Shangri-La was refreshing, since all the stores had their business stated also in English. There was the Good Woman of Made-up City store, nestled next to the Satisfied Race Thing Store and Pecker Lie Fallow Shoes. I never quite dared to eat at the No 4. Branch of Soil Pot Food, but did nip into the Guang Hui Hides a Clan Clothing Syore, without finding the clan that Guang Hui hid. And is the Shangri La Famous Shoe Hop the local version of the line dance?

Usually I just laugh at these, but one sign in Lijiang did get me worried about my sock hygiene: Less foot prints, more aroma.