Chinese names for British landmarks: Shard could be called “star plucking tower” and 100 other attractions christened with Mandarin monikers
The Shard could soon be christened with a new name which means “A tower allowing us to pluck stars from the sky”.
Zhai Xing Ta, which translates literally as the star plucking tower in Mandarin, is one of the suggestions made by the Chinese public to give London’s tallest building a Chinese name.
The home of British suit making, Savile Row, could be called Gao Fu Shuai Zhi Lu, or “Tall, rich, handsome street”.
New monikers will be given to 100 landmarks and attractions as more Chinese tourists visit Britain than ever before. Nearly 200,000 visitors from China are now spending £500m a year across the UK.
In an effort to attract even more tourists and double that number by 2020, Visit Britain launched a £1.6m campaign to give them a Mandarin name, attracting 13,000 suggestions from the Chinese public.
The tourist body has now taken the top three name suggestions for 100 landmarks and attractions and will decide the final names in the coming days.
That means Blackpool could be called "A place that is happy to visit" (Le You Yuan), Brighton "George and John’s Indian palace" (Qiao Zhi He Yue Han De Yin Du Gong) and Stoke-on-Trent "Diverse ceramics" (Bo Han Qi Yan).
The winning names will join a number of British landmarks which already have Chinese names. See if you can guess them in the quiz below.
[quiz id="13"]