SHENZHEN has corrected mistakes on 1,012 of its English signs since the start of this year in places including Shenzhen International Airport, border checkpoints and Shennan Boulevard, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

    Of the total mistakes, 893 were found at the city’s Hong Kong border checkpoints. Ninety-six public signs along Shennan Boulevard and 23 at the airport’s new terminal were also corrected.

    At present, the English on 27 more public signs is being corrected.

    Shenzhen launched the campaign to correct English mistakes on public signs in 2010, when the city was making preparations for the 2011 Shenzhen Universiade. Related work has, for the first time, been listed as one of the city government’s top priorities this year.

    Officials with the city’s foreign affairs office said although the city has made achievements in using standard English on public signs, it still has a long way to go compared with internationally advanced cities. Bilingual signs in Shenzhen are still not commonly used and no English signs have been placed in some areas where such signs are necessary, the officials said.

    While many mistakes have been pointed out, more corrections are not made due to lack of funding allocated for correcting them, according to the Daily report.

    The city’s transportation commission said it is aware of 83 traffic signs that need to be corrected, but the work hasn’t gone ahead because it’s not in the budget. The corrections will take years, the officials said.

    A seminar was held Wednesday afternoon after the city’s lawmakers inspected some of the corrected English signs. The lawmakers suggested that district and municipal governments provide financial support for the prompt correction of signs with mistakes.

    (SD News)