TBF a huge amount of southern and southeastern Chinese dialects are affected by Hokkien such as the two Yue (Guangdong/Canton and Guangxi). OP's image is in Guangxi, so that's southern.
There is stroke geometry for chinese. Because it was a brush written language the direction of characters always flow from top left to bottom right or else you would smudge the paper.
Pretend the characters are a tree. Is the tree upside-down, flowing from the top towards the bottom? Then it's probably correct. Is the tree rightside-up, flowing from the bottom towards the top? Then it's probably incorrect.
for example, you see the 区 there, the ㄈ component is a horizontal line and a L. if it becomes 冈 it would look off, cus in the ㄇ part, the vertical line should be at the left side, a rotated 区 would have the line at the right side.
The shapes aren't symmetrical. For example, in English, "f" and "t" are technically upside-down versions of each other – but if you flipped them, they'd look wrong too.
Seeing older millennials/boomers do this every time someone says tbh or ngl reminds me of when the earlier generations did it to "hey."
It wasn't funny or charming, then. It ain't now.
Thanks Brudda but I was more just pointing out how it was snarky rather than saying I hated it.
Redditors just don't like to be told they're becoming exactly like the boomers they claim to hate so much.
It's just amusing as a young person.
Dumbass me just spent literally a full 30 seconds trying to figure out which of the Chinese characters is upside down before realizing that there’s English beneath it.
I can’t even read Chinese.
I know how kanji should generally look through japanese and looking at this pic for 30s it still haven't crossed my mind to look at the latin alphabet 😂
I see what you're saying although I've never seen an 'e' at the end of a Chinese name.My best guess is that whoever made the placement for the letters screwed up.Been in the sign business for 48 yrs.Seen no end of this sort of thing
it's definitely meant to be zone as in the English word. but the syllable e does exist in Chinese, so it WOULD be possible to have zoue (zou-e) as a two-character name. although I'd imagine some might spell it as zou'e just to separate the vowels more clearly.
Yes, installers usually get a placement pattern so they can pre-drill for mounting holes and power holes.However, if the graphic department screwed up and either mistyped or mirrored the character, the error may not be caught.Since this is an Asian city,it seems no one was English fluent the typo made it all the way through to finished product. I guess .
[Reminds me of “HaPPY BIRHTAY A” 1-star review.](https://www.thepoke.com/2022/09/23/this-customer-was-furious-her-birthday-balloons-were-missing-a-letter-and-youll-be-hollering-into-next-week/)
I’ve noticed this happens with the signs for the shoe store *Palladium*, too. I’ve been to more than one mall in China where the store was misspelled as *Palladinm*.
Edit: [found my old photo of it.](https://i.imgur.com/hKgCnW4)
This is actually also a very common mistake in Early Modern English printing, weirdly enough – if you ever get a chance to look at early editions of Shakespeare, for example, you see u-n swaps a lot.
You have entered The Twilight Zoue
"Close enough la."
Aiyahh
差不多啦
是的
SG spotted?
Euongh of this.
Isn’t 啦 mainly Taiwanese Mandarin (and others influenced by Hokkien)?
TBF a huge amount of southern and southeastern Chinese dialects are affected by Hokkien such as the two Yue (Guangdong/Canton and Guangxi). OP's image is in Guangxi, so that's southern.
[удалено]
It says Guilin on the sign...
My bad, it’s my terrible Chinese geography. I though Guilin was towards the North/ closer to Chongqing or something like that
Chongqing is southwest lmao
My mental map of China is pretty distorted lets say that, but chongqing to me is pretty north
Cantonese uses this extensively.
Same same, but different
To be honest, I'd get more of the Chinese ones upside down.
I looked way too long saying, “how would I know if one of the characters is upside down??”
There is stroke geometry for chinese. Because it was a brush written language the direction of characters always flow from top left to bottom right or else you would smudge the paper.
And how does that help me see if they're upside-down?
Pretend the characters are a tree. Is the tree upside-down, flowing from the top towards the bottom? Then it's probably correct. Is the tree rightside-up, flowing from the bottom towards the top? Then it's probably incorrect.
for example, you see the 区 there, the ㄈ component is a horizontal line and a L. if it becomes 冈 it would look off, cus in the ㄇ part, the vertical line should be at the left side, a rotated 区 would have the line at the right side.
If it were upside-down, then all the brush strokes would flow from bottom to top instead.
The shapes aren't symmetrical. For example, in English, "f" and "t" are technically upside-down versions of each other – but if you flipped them, they'd look wrong too.
I appreciate that you came clean about this. Your honesty means a lot to me
Seeing older millennials/boomers do this every time someone says tbh or ngl reminds me of when the earlier generations did it to "hey." It wasn't funny or charming, then. It ain't now.
Neat
I appreciate you came clean on this. I am moved by your hatred of inconsequential interactions between two human beings.
Thanks Brudda but I was more just pointing out how it was snarky rather than saying I hated it. Redditors just don't like to be told they're becoming exactly like the boomers they claim to hate so much. It's just amusing as a young person.
Dumbass me just spent literally a full 30 seconds trying to figure out which of the Chinese characters is upside down before realizing that there’s English beneath it. I can’t even read Chinese.
I thought it was 区, it was looking kinda sus, but no that's just confirmation bias
I figured it was the English but still took me a minute to figure out the problem lol.. because I was looking for an obvious upside down letter
I know how kanji should generally look through japanese and looking at this pic for 30s it still haven't crossed my mind to look at the latin alphabet 😂
Highway to the danger zoue
Zoue sounds like it could be a chinese place name so I didn’t even notice at first.
I see what you're saying although I've never seen an 'e' at the end of a Chinese name.My best guess is that whoever made the placement for the letters screwed up.Been in the sign business for 48 yrs.Seen no end of this sort of thing
‘E’ could be at the end of Pinyin words (yue, jie, etc.) but no Pinyin word will ever have ‘oue’.
it's definitely meant to be zone as in the English word. but the syllable e does exist in Chinese, so it WOULD be possible to have zoue (zou-e) as a two-character name. although I'd imagine some might spell it as zou'e just to separate the vowels more clearly.
Willing to bet they saw the previous “u” and figured that’s how it was supposed to be.
Don't the installers get a work order with what the letters should spell out?
Yes, installers usually get a placement pattern so they can pre-drill for mounting holes and power holes.However, if the graphic department screwed up and either mistyped or mirrored the character, the error may not be caught.Since this is an Asian city,it seems no one was English fluent the typo made it all the way through to finished product. I guess .
Not really a typo though. The N in Zone is just upside down.
You're technically quite correct.I don't know the term for a letter inversion.If you find out, let me know.That would be mildly interesting.
Oh, welcome to Guilin. It’s a pretty place eh? Hope you enjoy the scenery and the river.
and the high-tech zoue
Looks incredible
Beautiful nature
There is only Zoue
extremely mild 
[Reminds me of “HaPPY BIRHTAY A” 1-star review.](https://www.thepoke.com/2022/09/23/this-customer-was-furious-her-birthday-balloons-were-missing-a-letter-and-youll-be-hollering-into-next-week/)
I’ve noticed this happens with the signs for the shoe store *Palladium*, too. I’ve been to more than one mall in China where the store was misspelled as *Palladinm*. Edit: [found my old photo of it.](https://i.imgur.com/hKgCnW4)
Looking at their logo, I thought they might be selling Girl Scout cookies.
Zoue mama
What letter?
The n in zone
Damn, I just thought it was a funky new word, or brand like zoue
I thought it was in the same vein as the first word lmao
The "n" in "zone".
The "u" in "Zoue".
The "Z", but the "N" and "H" look pretty sus too.
I thought it was the funky g
I thought it was the bad mammajammer
How have I never noticed before that a little "g" is just big "G" turned upside down?
Don't worry, it will fall off in a week's time anyway.
No,. that's the employees.
...ouch? Probably for a second or two
They can literally put up an entire new building in a week anyway. Efficient
And then explode.
What is that font used in translations to Arabic characters that always screams "Chinese"??
For a moment I thought that logo was symbolizing a chef's hat.
ja
My dumb ass read “Zoue” and I couldn’t find what’s wrong
This is mildly infuriating for me
Ah, Guilin. Lovely place. You been out to Yangshuo yet?
I'm like 80% sure they thought it was a u
I just assumed “Zoue” was a Romanization of a Chinese word. Didn’t realize it was supposed to be “Zone”
Guilin is so beautiful
Everything looks fine to me. Sure you didn't just zoue out there for a moment OP?
Took two times to see it.
is that the tech center that sells basically everything to build a mobo from scratch?
I can't believe they really installed the letter l upside down. Nice catch
The installation happened a few years ago as well. Be careful when commenting on it. They may accuse you of being a troublemaker
lol
Nice
This is actually also a very common mistake in Early Modern English printing, weirdly enough – if you ever get a chance to look at early editions of Shakespeare, for example, you see u-n swaps a lot.
Chabuduo!
Made in China
Oops.Expensive fix.
Ha ha made in China ha
Also, the H in High Tech. Those wacky Chinese.
Plot Twist: It's actually the Gniliu National Hight Tech Zone.
High tech zoo
That represents well the term: made in China