An Origin Story of Mountainous Proportions

險降坡

xiǎn jiàng pō

試踩煞車

shì cǎi shā chē

Danger dropping slope

Test (try stepping on) your brakes

I discovered this sign on a mountain road, right before the pavement veered downward at a perilous angle. Its purpose is to warn drivers to check their brakes, because if they can't brake they're likely to break something on the way down.

Fun Fact: I was looking at this sign when my mind gave birth to the idea that would eventually become HanSigns. Whether that means you should bless or curse this sign's existence is a choice I leave to you.

Note the second sentence, which when translated literally reads "Test step on brakes." In English, we would usually say "test your brakes," but in Chinese 踩 (step on/press) is added after 試 (test/try).

Death from Above

危險

Wēi xiǎn

小心落葉

Xiǎo xīn luò yè

Danger

Watch out for falling leaves

It's a boulder!

No, it's a bomb!

No, it's a falling leaf! Run for cover!

Considering that before I came to Taiwan, I'd never seen a deciduous element more dangerous than a maple leaf, I thought this sign was pretty amusing. However, as it turns out, some of the leaves here are actually dangerous. I found this sign underneath a palm tree, and let me tell you, those palm leaves a massive! I sure wouldn't want to be clobbered in the head with one of these club-like leaves. (Or perhaps a encounter with a palm leaf would be more like having a date with a guillotine? In any case, I don't plan to find out.)

On a more serious note: many signs of this nature use the word 小心 (be careful). However, you'll also occasionally see the word 注意 (zhùyì) used in a similar fashion.

Painting the Town Yellow

向面一步靠 

Xiàng miàn yī bù kào 

水滴不外落 

Shuǐ dī bù wài luò 

Come one step forward

Drops don't fall outside

I found this sign posted above the urinal in a men's room, asking me to step closer so as not to make a mess. I've see a lot of signs like this in Taiwan, and I saw quite a few similar signs when I lived in Korea as well. Apparently someone thinks that Asian men like to stand five meters back from the urinal and paint the wall yellow (or clear, as may be the case). I've never seen it, but it must've happened. Once. Somewhere.

Note that 靠 doesn't literally mean "to come," but rather "to lean" or "to keep near to."