Chinese_and_Britis_3123641b.jpg (Photo : www.telegraph.co.uk)
UK Visas and Immigration and Britain's tourism agency, VisitBritain, seek the help of Chinese citizens in creating Chinese nicknames for 101 tourist attractions in a bid to increase visitors from the Asian country.
VisitBritain Chief Executive Sally Balcombe told Telegraph UK that the idea was to have the entire Chinese population to talk about Britain.
"This campaign, Great Names for Great Britain, will not only increase awareness of the experiences that Britain has to offer, but help encourage these valued Chinese guests to explore our nations and regions," she explained.
The Chinese are targeted by tourism chiefs all over the world because of their current status as the highest spending tourists worldwide, based on a report from the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
According to the agency's website, the country's tourist attractions have been classified into nine categories, including film and literature as well as food and wine, while an open category was added to cover attractions related to the royal family.
The naming of the first category began on Dec. 3, and the agency will open a new category every week until Feb. 2015.
Some of the attractions already given Chinese names include the Gherkin, which, to the Chinese, is "the pickled little cucumber."
The Stonehenge was nicknamed Ju Shi Zhen, which when translated means "huge stone clusters," while Cambridge is dubbed as Jian Qiao or "Sword Bridge."
Celebrities such as the legendary band the Beatles were also given a Mandarin name which translates to "gentlemen with long hair"; while British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock Holmes in the hit BBC TV series "Sherlock," was nicknamed "Curly Fu" due to his floppy hair and his role as the famous detective whose last name in Mandarin is "Fu."
