After uploading some snapshots from yesterday to my Flickr profile I had some friends ask me what the two signs on the top right-hand side mean.

The first one prohibits cart-bikes and rickshaws at most times. However, the second one has created slightly more interest, not only amongst my friends. This sign however does also exist in most other countries, but isn’t nearly as popular as it is in China.

On the  “Comparison of European traffic signs” Wikipedia article one can find several images of similar signs in Europe, the Spanish one being the closest to the Chinese sign. The English description is and a bit of searching found the official explanation over at the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau (北京市公安局公安交通管理局): “Vehicles carrying dangerous goods prohibited”. I still prefer telling tourists it’s about not setting your car on fire on that street.

Important: The event is now going to be held on January 8th! Same place, same time.

The last Beijing Tweetup we had (see #bjtweetup) was back in November during the China2.0 tour and was a fantastic event organized by Winser Zhao (@winserzhao) and Elliott Ng (@elliottng). The event was held at a Sichuan restaurant in the centre of Beijing and attracted around 25 people in total.

As I am going to be leaving Beijing soon, I thought it would be a nice idea to attend another tweetup: but who was going to organize it? So instead of waiting around I decided to just go ahead and announce a new event in the very near future. So I am proud to announce here again:

The next Beijing Tweetup will be held at Kro’s Nest inside the North Gate of the Worker’s Stadium on January 7th January 8th starting at 7pm. I would like to ask anybody wanting to join in the fun to send me a quick message on Twitter (@ianholton) or leave a comment here.

There is an event page on Facebook for anybody who happens to have a profile there too.
You can find a map to the venue on the Kro’s Nest website.

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