Hsinchu road signs leave English readers puzzled
Hsinchu road signs leave English readers puzzled
2026-07-07
A driver in Hsinchu recently noticed some unusual road signage while driving around the city. In one instance, two signs for the same road had the same Chinese, but totally different English translations. Some are literal, while others use transliteration. Someone else discovered that a graphic on one sign was actually upside down. What’s even worse—it’s been that way for three years.
Vehicles on this busy thoroughfare pass a vertical green sign clearly saying the name of the street in Chinese and English: Puding Road. The sign above the road next to the traffic light also says Puding in Chinese, but the English translation for some reason starts with an N. It’s the same road, but has two different names.
People were puzzled by the difference, although it seems like the correct name might have peeled off. But this isn’t the only problematic sign in the city.
This sign indicates the way toward Zhuzhong Railway Station, but do you see what the problem is? The train icon is upside down, making it look like a monorail. The icon should look like this, with the rails on the ground. What’s more ridiculous is that this sign has been up for three years.
Lin Chun-yuan
Hsinchu Transportation Department deputy director
For the sign with an incorrect English translation, the city will ask the contractor to correct it as soon as possible.
Huang Chi
Hsinchu Transportation Department technician
As for the signboard, we will fix the issue by the end of July.
City officials promised to complete improvements by the end of the month. After all, road signs aren’t just for locals. Foreign tourists could be led astray by a confusing sign.
Aside from translation errors, people also discovered an instance in which two road signs showed different English spellings. Both refer to Zhubei City, but the bottom one reads “Zhugbed Shi” in English. Turns out that it’s the Hakka pronunciation, installed only at major intersections as part of an initiative by the Hakka Affairs Council.
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#roadsigns #Englishtranslation #translationfail #Hsinchu #Hakka #driving
兩塊路牌中文相同英文翻譯不同連圖片也放反
2026-07-07
日前，有民眾在新竹市開車時，看到市區有些不尋常的路牌標誌，有兩塊路牌中文相同、英文卻不同，有的是意譯、有的卻是音譯，搞得很混亂。最近還有人發現有的路牌上的圖片，怎麼看怎麼怪，原來圖片上下顛倒了。離譜的是，這個錯置已經三年了。
車來車往的馬路上，一旁矗立著綠色路牌，埔頂路幾個字寫得清清楚楚。抬頭一看，紅綠燈上面那塊也寫著埔頂路，不過..仔細一看，右邊這塊的英文拼音，Puding，沒問題。但上面那塊的拼音，竟是N開頭。同一條路，兩塊路牌中文一樣，英文不一樣!
民眾一看好困惑，但看起來似乎是正確的補丁被風給吹落了。只是，在新竹，有問題的路牌，還不只這一塊。
牌上標示著前往台鐵竹中站的方向，看出問題了嗎?火車標識竟然上下顛倒，讓人誤以為是倒掛式電車，正確的應該長這樣，鐵軌在地面上才對。更誇張的是，這塊路牌已經錯誤三年了，事到如今還在顛倒世界。
[[新竹市政府交通處副處長 林俊源]]
“該路名牌英文翻譯錯誤部分，市府將請廠商儘速修正。”
[[新竹縣政府交通處技正 黃琪]]
“那標誌牌面的部分，本府會在七月底完成改善。”
相關單位承諾會在月底完成改善，畢竟負責指路的標示，看的不只是當地人，可別一個不小心讓外國遊客看得霧煞煞。
除了翻譯錯誤，民眾也發現，這兩塊路牌出現了英文拼音不一樣的情況，同樣都是竹北市，上面那塊寫著Zhubei City，下面那塊則是Zhugbed Shi，原來，白色那塊是客家版，是之前交通部配合客委會的計畫，只會在重要路口出現。
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