Chinese Street Names
March 16th, 2006 by MarkEven after living in Taiwan for three years, I still find myself amused at Chinese street names. Ham-fistedly translating them word for word into English yields amusing results. Here are some of my favorite Chinese street names:
| Chinese | Pinyin | English |
| 麗水街 | lìshuĭjiē | Beauty Water Street |
| 和平路 | hépínglù | Peaceful Road |
| 仁愛路 | rén’àilù | Humanity Road |
| 博愛路 | bóàilù | Brotherly Love Road |
| 中山路 | zhōngshānlù | Middle Mountain Road |
| 建國路 | jiànguólù | Establish Nation Road |
| 市民大道 | shìmíndàdào | City People Boulevard |
| 永康街 | yŏngkāngjiē | Ever-Healthy Street |
That’s right. In hundreds of years, 永康街 has never gotten a cold… not even once. There’s never a war on 和平路, and you’d better stay the heck off of 市民大道, because it’s just for city people. Amusing street names abound.
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March 16th, 2006 at 10:44 pm
I have a good one for you. In Taipei, there’s a “酒泉路”. That means “Beer Fountain Road”
March 17th, 2006 at 12:02 am
The question is, are they any weirder than place names anywhere else? Braintree? Alewife? Wonderland? And those are just Boston T stops.
By the way, you want another “jie” character. The one you used means “connect” not “street”.
March 17th, 2006 at 12:58 am
Thanks for the correction, Battle Panda. It’s fixed (永康街 had a typo). Hmm… I don’t know about those shops, but Alewife sounds funny to me. I wonder if it sounds funny to locals? Wonderland just sounds like some marketroid came up with it.
Shops, of course will, usually be weirder than street names. There’s one clothes shop in Táibĕi, near Zhōngxiào Dūnhuà that’s called “Mother Fucker”. It has a sign (written in English) out front and everything.
March 17th, 2006 at 9:09 am
No, Mark. I didn’t say “shops” I said “T-stops” — stations for Bostons “subway” system (I put “subway” in quotes because most of it is tramway above ground).
March 17th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Ah. I haven’t encountered that term before and I thought it was a mistype. How embarrassing. Alright, let’s get back on topic- names of Chinese streets and places that are interesting when translated into English.
March 18th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
zhōngshānlù is probably better translated as ‘Sun Yat-sen Road’. That one is not so weird as it just honors the founding father of the ROC.
March 18th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
I think you missed the part about “Ham-fistedly translating them word for word into English yields amusing results.”
Don’t ruin our fun man. How about the fact that his name means “middle mountain”? That’s sweet!
March 18th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Here’s one. Do you know who’s “Eastern Swamp Fur”?
Mao (fur) Ze (swamp) Dong (east).
Western names are usually about proffesions for family names and adjectives or religious terms for given names. Smith, Baker, Cutter, etc..
Chinese names seem more abstract.
March 18th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
Yeah, it definitely does ruin the fun if you stop translating word for word.
March 19th, 2006 at 1:03 am
Haha, I used to live on “Humanity Road”(not in Taibei) but now I live near “Crouching Dragon Street”.(Let’s see if you can figure that out lol)
March 20th, 2006 at 11:05 am
For more word-for-word translation (and general mistranslation) goodness, try this page. Hilarity will ensue.
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:24 pm
I can tell you this: the names of roads, things, and peole are usually selected to reflect ideas, ideals, poetry, and such. Or they may be named after famous people. Ever been to Roosevelt Rd. in Taipei?