Stop Mouth: China's Trains and Chinglish Stories
(and So Much More!)

There's so much to be gained through a journey on the rails. A love of trains and a PhD makes David Feng appear to be a shameless Sheldon Cooper wannabe, although David's motivation for getting into the trains world was also inspired by something else that was rather awkward — English signage at stations. After discovering the epic masterpiece — mistranslating "Station Entrance" as "Stop Mouth" — David thought enough was enough, and started getting his feet wet in volunteering to translate signs properly.

Dedication paid off: six years onward, and David's setting the standards of what should appear across the Chinese national rail network with his book, intended for rail crew across China to better serve travelling expats with. But it's not just about the book itself, but far more about two languages, two mindsets, many unheard-of stories, and one massive rail network...

Join railway specialist, author, TEDx speaker David Feng as he invites you to take a look at his book, the challenges of setting an easily-understood norm in two languages, some of the weirdest "just-in-case" scenarios on the Chinese railways, and little-known facts that are hardly ever known amongst the travelling public. For example, did you know...

• that the term for passengers needing travel assistance used to have no universal translation norm, thus leaving mobility-impaired passengers across the network at a loss?

• that one of the most difficult terms to translate was THE SCHEDULE OF THE EMU, which actually does not appear as silly as might at first sight?

• that the most difficult scenario for train crew to explain to customers involve an alteration to seat formation involving two different types of trains?

• that there are 5 different places or arrangements Business Class carriages might be found on trains in China?

• that more than 10 different organisations manage the 350 km/h Beijing-Shanghai HSR trains?

• that just the mainland of China alone is split into 18 regional rail organisations?

• that it used to be able to tell who was boss at railway stations just by looking at the uniform?

Oh, and David's also doing a documentary about all railway stations across China — he's been to 307 of them already (there are nearly 2,300 nationwide!) and so will be sharing you quite a few clips and facts from the stations that you never heard of — or the minor details about stations that make them so unique...

• including stations with an echoey effect (Muping, Shandong)

• stations which have the building at a 30° angle to the tracks (Minquan North, He'nan)

• stations which have a "sandwiched" platform built in 2004 (Huludao North, Liaoning)

• the most artistic stations in Artistic Anhui

• stations involving stories about birds (Hebi and Sanmenxia South, He'nan)

• the HSR station that literally looks like a Tube station (literally!; Changzhou North, Jiangsu)

• stations with hellishly hot cuisine (Tongren South, Guizhou)

• and stations at the ends of the network (Yuxi, Yunnan)

Finally, ask David, who last year completed over 400 trips across 120,000 km in China, any trains-related questions you might have, be it the most obvious, or the geeky-and-super-advanced...

Join David for an evening of trains, languages, railways, discoveries, books, onboard stories, and trains, at 19:30 on 14 May 2018 at the Bookworm Beijing!