SHANGHAI, Oct. 12 -- NIKE has offered a refund to a woman from Beijing who said she was embarrassed by a T-shirt that contained a sexual innuendo printed in English during a recent trip overseas, the Beijing Times reported today.

The 40-year-old woman, whom the paper only identified by the surname Zhu, spent 115 yuan (US$15.31) on a Nike T-shirt, which the salesperson claimed was a top seller, for her trip to Europe in August.

However, both the salesperson and Zhu didn't understand the words on the T-shirt – "I LIKE BEING ON TOP."

When they reached the airport in Rome, a professor from Zhu's tourism group persuaded her to change her shirt because the words were embarrassing.

The professor told her"I LIKE BEING ON TOP"means "I want sex" in oral English, an explanation most native English speakers would find far from accurate. While the words could be construed as a sexual innuendo, they are far from being as blatantly sexual as the professor suggested.

"I felt ashamed when I realized the meaning," Zhu said.

"I finally understood why some people smiled weirdly and whistle at me," she said.

Nike said the T-shirts was designed in the United States and sold in Europe and Asia, but no other customers have complained about the words on it, the report said.

The company has agreed to give Zhu a refund, the report said.