Your Beijing Street Signs, Explained

Thanks to all who wrote in with guesses about the meaning of this not-entirely-obvious "thou shalt not" sign in Beijing's Ritan Park:

And this smaller oddball one, from the Central Business District:

After the jump, another Beijing sign that should make the meaning of the first one immediately clear. For now, congratulations to Alex Woods, who was first with the right answer; and to Osama Abbas Khan, who was about two minutes later.

Some other worthy guesses:

I'm guessing the first one is something like, "Don't harm the trees."
 
The best guess within our office on the second one is "No al-Qaeda bombings in this block." If it was in London, it might translate as "No al-Qaeda bombings in this block.  We apologise for any inconvenience."
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"No Fishboning Permitted!!!"
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"Don't pull the martial arts weapons off the pine trees"
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The sign must mean: "Don't step on the fishbones lying on the ground, because it will make a funny noise."
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My guess - "cutting down trees and/or removing tree branches is prohibited."

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Beware of falling Douglas fir twigs?
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For the second one: "Low Clearance Ahead - Do Not Proceed with Peacock Displaying on Roof."

[From another reader: "As for the car bomb graphic, it might also be admonishing drivers not to allow a peacock to escape via the sunroof!"
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No chickens allowed in redwoods
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No Rapture?
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Don't spit your bones on the floor
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I've been to Beijing (perhaps even to this park?) but I can't say I've ever seen that sign before.  To me it looks like a pine branch and suggests "don't muck up the pine trees" but that would be a bit weird.  So I'm going to guess it means something more like "Don't walk on the grass / stay on the path".  That would make sense given that it's a park and there are times that sections might need to be re-seeded and there definitely is an element of "don't trample" in that sign.

So that's my guess, from a confused White guy.
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What is "No collecting firewood", Alex?
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It obviously means, "Don't catch yourself in your zipper."

And that's good advice in any language!
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Don't bury fishbones in the park.
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So I'm dying to know what the sign meant. My guess was don't climb the trees.
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No firewood collection. Or no breaking limbs from trees for firewood.
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It means "Do not jostle the pine branches." Not knowing any better, I actually did this as a visitor last year at Mt. Huangshan because the wafts of pine pollen are much too mesmerizing and was warned by a security-person to stop.
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My guess: Don't leave fish bones lying around after picnicking on fish.

Do I win a free subscription?

This more explicit warning sign, also from Beijing last week, should make the other one's meaning clear.

Yes, it's "no firecrackers" -- the mysterious stylized illustration on the previous sign depicts a string of a hundred of so firecrackers beginning to go off. The importance of this message will be obvious to anyone who has lived through the deafening days-long detonations during Spring Festival, aka Chinese New Year. In addition to the two winners, congrats to others who came up with the correct answer, including: Harvey Handley, James Dyett, Kim-Son H. Nguyen [who admits a special advantage in growing up in Vietnam playing with firecrackers], Brian Glucroft, Justin Gareau, Holly Smith, Stephan Faris, Matthew Cawood, Jay Wasserman, Terri Tyminski, Tad Fallows, and others I may have forgotten.

As for the second photo, which I thought meant "no car bombers," a gloss by Brian Glucroft:

>>"No sirens"?  Both in terms of light and noise.

Or maybe maybe no loudspeaker announcements, such as for those vehicles that go around blaring advertisements.  Maybe it's a noise sensitive region....

Or maybe it is "no giant sponge monsters on top of car"! (instead of the black being the "figure", use the orange)

Finally, the figure is on top of the slash, not behind it.  Does that you can do it (whatever it is)?

Anyways, I agree.  Very nice sky for Beijing.<<

James Fallows is a staff writer at The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Jimmy Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the 2018 book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which was a national best seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.

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