SHANGHAI, July 23 -- CHINGLISH is a big problem in Shanghai's public signs. It might be easy to have a laugh about a sign reading "safety export" which you might just be able to figure out means "exit" but if you saw a sign reading "Boiling water face muscle of Baiye" in a dim-sum booth in Shanghai's prime scenic spot of Yuyuan Garden, would you be game to order it?

Actually, the confusing name identifies a kind of soup made with fried gluten and bean curd sheets.

Concerned about the problems which may affect the image of the city when it hosts the World Expo in 2010, the government is planning to publish a guidebook for public road signs to improve the "language environment" before the event, said officials at a sign translation symposium at Shanghai Tongji University a week ago.

It is expected about 3.5 million foreign visitors will be in town during the 2010 Expo period and the organizers don't want to welcome them with Chinglish or misspelt signs.

The new guideline requires the use of "road" instead of its pinyin equivalent "lu" in a street's name. And roads named for Chinese places must be spelled out in pinyin.

Currently, the sign at Gonghexin Road reads "New Gonghe Road," which is not how the street is labeled on many maps, and Xizang Road M. is labeled "Central Tibet Road."

And the city will soon begin replacing more than 20,000 street signs with a blue background as well as having the names in standard English and pinyin, said traffic officials last month.

"We want the new street signs to be clearer and easier to recognize," said Qian Jianguo, an official of Shanghai Engineering Administrative Bureau.

And China's capital of Beijing, preparing for the 2008 Olympic Games, is also trying to make improvements in its "language environment."

By the end of last year, Beijing had corrected 6,530 English signs in the capital's central districts and will complete the whole campaign in all major public places by 2008.

The most significant revision during Beijing's recent language clean-up must be the removal of all the "WC" signs on public toilets.

The campaign will cover Beijing's public places, including roads, tourism spots, shopping malls, museums, cultural venues, Metros and bus stations, hospitals and stadiums.

Though officials seem to be rushing to achieve an international look in their cities, expats in Shanghai still show their appreciation of the city's existing public signs.

Sims Baker, a US student from Mississippi University, has been in town for a few months.

She said she found the road signs to be very help in getting around Shanghai.

"I've seen some Chinglish mistakes, which are very humorous. But, in Shanghai, it's still much easier to find the way by following the signs than in neighboring cities," said Baker.

The language changes are not only a result of government efforts because volunteers have made a big contribution to finding "bugs" in signs. Students in one of the societies working to phase out bad signs in Shanghai are called "woodpeckers."

These students, from Shanghai International Studies University, went to several ancient water towns around the city, such as Zhujiajiao and Xitang, to correct signs.

"We organized the campaign once a month," said Zhang Jiani, who is currently in charge of the society. "The members also have been to Metro stations, airports and crowded places, such as Xujiahui and Nanjing Road W. to find bad signs."

Another " woodpecker," Lin Lin said: "I took part in the campaign four times. There are still many mistakes in the signs but they are not that obvious. People might not notice if they don't pay attention."

The Shanghai Daily's Campus Website also joined in the campaign last year. Jiang Kunyang, an editor of the Website, said hundreds of incorrect signs that people had submitted by e-mail have been published.

Some are hilarious. For instance, a notice in a tourist site in Yunnan Province tells you to "slip carefully." So should visitors all go and slip, of course but not "carelessly."

And a "disabled elevator" in the Pengpu Xincun Station in Metro Line 1 is not an elevator that doesn't function - it is just a misinterpretation of "elevator for disabled persons."

The situation with road signs, however, is much better than the translation of names for food on restaurant menus.

Another example stands out in Beijing. A small noodle restaurant near Beijing West Railway Station named itself a "face powder restaurant."

It's a typical Chinglish sign as the English words "flour" and "face" share the same Chinese character and obviously the vendor mixed them up.

And another one is when "Italian spaghetti" is translated into "ideas powder" which derives from the literal translation of the Chinese name, said a report of Xinhua News Agency.

A thick wheat-based noodle in Japanese cuisine is literally translated according to its Chinese name into, "fry the dark winter in the sun's way" which makes no sense at all, said the report.

Though people ranging from business elites to cab drivers are all required to speak at least a little English to prepare for the Olympics or World Expo, the use of the written language is the real problem that the authorities should help the city cope with, city officials said.

To submit photos for incorrect English signs, visit campus.shanghaidaily.com/sense.asp