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Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 02 No. 02 (2022) 
ISSN (online): 2766-791X 
ISSN (print):    2770-6354  

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On Translating Introductions of Shameen Attractions Based on Textual 
Information Types from the Perspective of Communication 

Xuanying LU1, Jie LYU2 

1School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China, E-mail: 
849587009@qq.com 

 2Corresponding Author: same as above, E-mail: 1833904290@qq.com 

Fund: The study is one of the achievements of Innovative Projects of Colleges and Universities under the Department of 
Education of Guangdong Province (Project No. 2019WTSCX024) and is supported by the Institute of Hermeneutics of 
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (Fund No. CSY-2021-YA-04). 

Abstract 

Communication researches how people communicate social information by signals. Since tourism translation is of 
significance for foreign-oriented publicity, it is reasonable to conduct research on tourism translation from the perspective of 
Communication. Generally, when translating introductions of tourist attractions, to better meet foreign tourists’ expectations 
of different Textual Information Types that are in line with the Theme-Oriented Information-Highlighting Principle, it is 
suggested that translators not only remove redundancy from the source text by strategies like omission and condensation, but 
also reduce its noise combining amplification, omission, conversion, restructuring and so forth on account of differences 
between reading habits as well as the context of Chinese and Western culture; and particularly, strategies like literal 
translation, transliteration, free translation, and note, should be applied to translating cultural information according to foreign 
tourists’ expected feedback. 
Keywords: tourism translation, Textual Information Types (TIT), Communication, Shameen 
1. Introduction
Tourism translation plays an influential role in foreign-oriented publicity and even international communication. However, 
the English translations of some tourist introductions in Guangzhou are of discouraging quality due to various mistakes, and 
need to be studied in that many of them fail to precisely convey the original Chinese texts or have received unsatisfactory 
response from foreign tourists. And to make tourism translation better function as a way of foreign-oriented publicity, it is 
reasonable to research it by applying Communication theory. 
This paper intends to examine the English-translated introductions of tourist attractions from the perspective of 
Communication theory based on the case analysis of Shameen, a tourist attraction in Guangzhou. Merits and problems of the 
translated introduction of  Shameen have been explored based on Textual Information Types in line with Theme-Oriented 
Information-Highlighting Principle. Finally, an attempt has been made to summarize the translation strategies applicable to 
different purposes of information processing as well as to different TITs. 
2. Applicability of Communication Theory to Tourism Translation of Shameen
If foreign tourists want to get the English introductions of Shameen attractions, they need to scan the QR code at the bottom 
of the sign of the attraction to enter the official website but not open to comments. As such, the translated texts serve as a 
static, one-way communication process, and matches the Shannon-Weaver's Model of Communication as shown in Fig. 1. 
In this model, Shannon and Weaver unprecedentedly bought forward the idea of “noise”, which appertains to anything that 
clings to communication contents but is undesired by the sender in the process of conversion or acceptance of information. 
There are two kinds of noise: one generates from inside the information source, and the other one comes from outside the 
source (Hu, 2017, p.40). For Shameen, “noises” embody one that is generated from the attraction itself, for example, a load 
of architecture vocabulary in the text, which might make the introductions elusive. And the other one comes from external 
factors, such as foreigners’ stereotypes of China. These noises could easily fuzz communication contents and hinder the 



Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 02 No. 02 (2022) 
ISSN (online): 2766-791X 
ISSN (print):    2770-6354  

 

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communication process. The receiver may not receive all the messages quite precisely – the expected communication effect 
will be weakened; even worse, the receivers’ misconstruction could be caused (n.d.). 

 
Redundancy conduces to reducing noise and by definition,  is the repeated part of information. It doesn’t threaten the integrity 
of information, but helps eliminate the uncertainty of and correct the information, benefiting audiences’ percepting 
information (Hu, 2017, p.41-42). As for Shameen, for instance, introductions of many attractions in there list quite detailed 
historical events of the destination, trying to impress tourists with the historical significance of each attraction. Descriptions 
of historical events in these introductions take nearly two thirds of all the contents, while much information seems trivial in 
the eyes of visitors as in the case of making a long name list of every U.S. consul general to Guangzhou, China. Such 
redundancy decreases the information amount that the introduction is capable to carry, and weakens the economical delivery 
of information, turning out to distance tourists from enjoying their visits. 

Figure 1. Shannon-Weaver’s Model of Communication (n.d.) 
Generally speaking, in the process of communication, to ensure the communication effect, the translator is expected to 
navigate through noise, redundancy, and information amount. It is advisable that the translator reduces as much noise as 
possible with the least redundancy, and tries his best to accurately transfer messages through the limited amount of information. 
Certain criteria help manage the relationship. In the first place, response of the “audience” is a crucial element for evaluating 
the communication effect. In real life, the flow of information is not one-way. It is unwise for the sender to bombard their 
target audiences with contents merely on their behalf like what the Silver Bullet Theory suggests. Communication emphasizes 
more on the connotation of “together”, “both sides” and “exchanging” (Hu, 2017, p.20). Translating introductions of 
attractions, if regarded as a communication process, should not be analyzed completely in accord with the original Shannon-
Weaver’s Model. The destination of communication contents is the audience, and the final purpose for communication is the 
identification or much further, the support from the audience. The audience’s reaction is rightly a key element for evaluating 
the communication effect. 
“Audience” is the collective name of all kinds of information receivers. They select the information that meets their cognition 
of reality consciously, manifesting obvious bias in their actions. During the process of communication, the audience would 
react to information sent by the sender, which is exactly “feedback”. The translator, sending the information of the translated 
introductions, should likewise take readers’ demands and reactions into account and take actions to direct their choices of 
information to a favorable one (Hu, 2017, p.43+226-228). A perfection of Shannon-Weaver’s Model is like: 
Two considerations are applicable to analyzing feedback. First is the value of information. There is a universal dislike for 
tedious, repeated, and intricate content among visitors from different cultures. The introduction of attractions, as a channel 
for information flow, is of limited capacity of information – the physical space for carrying information is limited. To 
maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of communication, the translator must analyze the value of each TIT and decide on 
how to process those (Lyv & Pan, 2020). To this end, Zeng once proposed the Economical Conciseness Principle for foreign-
oriented publicity translation: firstly, the translator conveys as much information as possible with as few words as possible; 
secondly, the audience be able to get the clearest and most fluent (as opposed to lengthy and cumbersome) information at the 
lowest cost (the time and effort made to process information) (2005b). 
The second is the audience’s cultural background. The audience’s bias for selecting information, or “selective behavior”, is 
closely connected with their rebelliousness. For tourism translation, western audiences may ignore or refute information that 
threatens their cognition, or even derogate the source of the information (Hu, 2017, p. 235). Tourism translation serve as a 
window for foreign audiences to understand China in the truest way. Therefore, when translating, it is suggested that the 



Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 02 No. 02 (2022) 
ISSN (online): 2766-791X 
ISSN (print):    2770-6354  

 

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translator endeavor to clear up misunderstandings caused by different cultures and ways of thinking, to increase the readability 
and acceptability of the translation, and to achieve the foreign-oriented publicity goal as well as the expected communication 
effect (Yang, 2010). 

Figure 2. Shannon-Weaver’s Model of Communication (n.d.) 
It is worth noticing that, when processing information, the translator needs to not only “remove redundancy” from the text, 
but also “reduce noise” of the text – but both of which are not necessarily deleting information; due to the differences between 
Chinese and Western cultures, and the knowledge gap between Chinese people and foreign tourists, sometimes the translator 
may have to add information that the original text had failed to deliver. At the same time, such awareness of audience’s 
rebelliousness never amounts to blindly wooing the audience. Both Chinese cultural influence and foreigners’ interests in 
Chinese culture continue to grow, discerning the “noise” and “redundancy” poses a much bigger challenge to the translator. 
The international status of the country should be taken into account, so as to meet the demands for international cultural 
communication of a country. 
3. On Translating Introductions of Attractions in Shameen, Guangzhou Based on TITs 
At present, the only theory that exactly for tourism translation is the Theme-Oriented Information-Highlighting Principle 
proposed by Professor Zeng Lisha. There is not a specialized system for tourism translation theory. In line with this Principle, 
TIT qualitatively summarizes the nature, function, characteristics, and value of different theme-bound tourist information, 
categories including factual information, descriptive information, evaluative and appraisal information, cultural information, 
vocative information, aesthetic information, stylistic information, and information of tips (2005a). 
Shameen is a distinctive architectural complex that embodies European style and reflects Chinese modern history about the 
concession. All the introductions of attractions in Shameencome in 5 TITs: factual information type, descriptive information 
type, evaluative and appraisal information type, cultural information type, and stylistic information type. Each will be 
analyzed with examples. 
3.1 Factual Information Type 
Factual information makes up the largest part of most tourism profiles and provides readers with basic knowledge of the 
tourist attraction (Luo, 2009, p.32). This TIT is the most objective among all nine textual information types of the theory and 
carries the largest amount of information. Nevertheless, although factual information is objective, a smart translator should 
still cautiously discern the redundant information from all the objective facts to maximize the efficiency of communication. 
How to remove redundancy as well as reduce the noise of these two kinds of information depends on both the target audience’s 
cognitive habit and, things like national condition, nation history, and cultural characteristics of a country where the attractions 
are in. 
Generally, there are two subtypes of factual information: one about the present and the other about the past. Factual 
information about the present mainly introduces the current situation of the destination; common examples include a 
description of address, area, and other basic information about the destination (Zeng, 2005a). The detailed address of the 
destination is included in all of the introductions. Here is an example; parts to be analyzed are highlighted in bold and 
underlined (similarly hereinafter): 

Translation Example 1 



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Source text: 
16 18 20  

Source text Romanized: Shāmiàn dàjiē yìndù rén zhùzhái jiùzhǐ, wéi guǎngzhōu shāmiàn jiànzhù qǘn de zǔchéng bùfèn, 
wèiyǘ guǎngzhōu shì lìwān qǖ shāmiàn jiē cuìzhōu shèqǖ shāmiàn dàjiē 16, 18, 20 hào (shāmiàn dàjiē yǚ shāmiàn yījiē 
jiāojiè de xīběi zhuǎnjiǎo chù). 
Target text: The Site of Indian Residence is a part of Guangzhou Shamian architectural complex. It is located at No. 
16, 18 and 20 Shamian Avenue, Liwan District, Guangzhou. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the Site of the Residence of India Nationals, No. 16, 18, 20 Shameen Street) 
The only way for foreign tourists to read the English introductions of Shameen attractions is by heading for Shameen in person, 
and then scan the QR code at the bottom of the sign of each attraction for access to the corresponding website. That is, the 
tourists must be in Shameen, Guangzhou if they have scanned the QR code and seen the website. Therefore, the fact that site 
of the Residence of Indian Nationals “is a part of Guangzhou Shamian architectural complex” is redundant and leads to 
inefficient delivery of information. 
Information value can be evaluated by referring to parallel text in the target language (Lyv & Pan, 2020). As China covers 
vast stretches of land, to better reign over the whole country, rulers in the ancient time divide the country into many districts 
with several levels, and the way of administration division established in the Yuan Dynasty is still in use today. A complete 
description of address in China usually includes information of province, city, district, community, road, and number, while 
that of Western countries often presents name of city, road, and number only. For example, the British address is written in 
forms like “2 Drury Way, North Circular Road, London NW10 0TH”, or for American one it goes like “490 2nd Street, Suite 
300, San Francisco, California 94107”. Western people do not use “district” to describe address; they might even be perplexed 
by the word “district” since it means “an area of a town or country, especially one that has particular features2.” It would be 
better to omit the description of “Liwan District”. And, the original translator already removed the redundant “

”. 
Moreover, the original author might have a strong willingness to make tourists learn thoroughly about the specific location of 
the site, thus expressly annotated that the site locates at “ ” in brackets. But actually, 
foreign tourists are not scholars who specialize in Shameen architectural complex, or residents who settle in Shameen. It is of 
no use for them to know such detailed address information. It is laudable that the redundant parts of “

” have already been deleted in the original translation. 
Apart from that, the diction for describing the address here also needs attention. Although there is no such convention in the 
United Kingdom, people in the United States use “avenue” for roads that run north-south and “street” for east-west ones. 
Since “ ” runs east-west, it would be better to use “Street” instead of “Avenue” here in case of potential noise. 
To summarize, an optimized translation should be like this: 

Translation Example 1 (Revised Version) 
Target text: The Site of the Indian Residence is located at No. 16, 18, and 20 Shameen Street, Guangzhou. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the Site of the Residence of India Nationals, No. 16, 18, 20 Shameen Street) 
In addition, caused by different thinking modes of language, when translating a description of an area, redundancy can easily 
be created. An example is: 

Translation Example 2 
Source text: 0.39  
Source text Romanized: Miànjī yüē wéi 0.39 píngfāng gōnglǐ, céng shì zhūjiāng “xī shí gōnglǐ” de qǐdiǎn, lǎo 
guǎngzhōu chéng de shāngyè wénhuà zhōngxīn. 
Target text: Covering an area of about 0.39 square kilometers, it used to be the starting point of the “West 10 Kilometers” 
of the Pearl River landscape belt as well as the commercial and cultural center of the old Guangzhou city. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 

                                                           
 
2 Oxford University Press. (2014). District. In Oxford English Dictionary (8th ed., p.594). 



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Chinese expression is far different from that of English, and this can easily lead to redundancy and noise in translation. 
Influenced by the thinking mode of the mother tongue, it is uneasy for the translator to recognize that (Pinkham, 2000). Hence 
translators have to pay much effort to learn and get used to the expression of the target language. Laudably, the translator 
converted “ ” into “covering an area of” to meet the reading habit of foreign tourists. Still, this translation embodies 
a typical Chinese thinking mode. The word “cover” means “to spread over the area mentioned3.” That is, “area” is the default 
object of “cover”; the word “cover” involves the meaning of “area” already. It would be better to omit the redundant “an area 
of”. 

Translation Example 2 (Revised Version) 
Target text: Covering about 0.39 square kilometers, it used to be the starting point of the “West Ten Kilometers” of the 
30-kilometer Pearl River landscape belt as well as the commercial and cultural center of old Guangzhou. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 
Factual information about the past is for historical events related to the destination as well as the influence of these events 
(Zeng, 2005a). Examples include the history of the attraction, stories of celebrities who are in connection with the destination, 
or some other historical events that are indirectly related to the destination. Often, the original author will introduce some 
experiences of celebrities related to the attraction, aiming at tourists to obtain a deeper understanding of the destination. Still, 
if not handled properly, the noise would easily generate, or the passage might be sprinkled with redundant information that 
does not have a strong connection with the destination, like the following example: 

Translation Example 3 
Source text: 1847 1854

 
Source text Romanized: 1847 nián, fǎguó chuánjiàoshì Mù Ruòsè wéifǎn qīng zhèngfǔ guānyǘ xīfāng chuánjiàoshì 
bùdào de guīdìng, qiánrù shānxī. 1854 nián, fǎguó chuánjiàoshì Mèng Zhènshēng qiánrù zhílì, dōu bèi dāngdì guānfǔ 
cháhuò, jiěsòng guǎngzhōu fǎguó lǐngshìguǎn. 
Target text: In 1847, the French missionary, Joseph Pastor, broke into Shanxi Province in violation of the Qing 
government’s provisions on the preaching of Western missionaries. In 1854, the French missionary Meng Zhensheng 
sneaked into Zhili and was seized by the local government and sent to the French Consulate in Guangzhou. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the Site of the French Missionary Building, No. 42 South Shameen Street) 
At the first glance, it seems that the names of the French missionaries have some connection to “the French Missionary 
Building”, while it does not make sense. There is no information about whether these two persons were once worked in this 
French Missionary Building or they were finally sent here after being arrested, and the lack of information generates noise – 
tourists might have no idea what the connection between the two missionaries and the building is after reading these two 
sentences. The translator should omit the two sentences, or search and add relevant information for clarifying the connection 
to reduce the noise. 
Last but not least, Shameen had been the British-French Concession for nearly 90 years and more than ten countries used to 
set their consulates here. Shameen is, therefore, of significance in reflecting Chinese modern history about concession, and it 
would be laudable that relevant content is emphasized instead of being deleted as redundancy in translation. 
3.2 Descriptive Information Type 
Descriptive information describes attributes or qualities with descriptive expressions to help readers better understand the 
characteristics of the factual information. This TIT combines both subjectivity and objectivity, because of which there might 
be some exaggeration in the source text. The translator should discriminate the textual information that has been exaggerated 
from the source text (Luo, 2009, p.32). 
Exclusively, Chinese features four-character idioms. Using four-character idioms can make the text much tidier in rhythm 
and more flowery in language. It also strengthens the power and infectiousness of the text. As it is unique to Chinese, if being 
fully translated, problems including poor logic and excessive exaggeration could be caused, both of which create redundancy 
and generate noises, thus reducing the readability of the text. 

                                                           
 
3 Oxford University Press. (2014). Cover. In Oxford English Dictionary (8th ed., p.470). 



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For introductions of Shameen attractions, descriptive information is mostly seen in the depiction of building characteristics. 
For example: 

Translation Example 4 
Source text: 

 
Source text Romanized: Zhèng lìmiàn liǎng céng jǖn wéi zhùláng shì, zhùláng xiànjiǎo jiǎnjié míngkuài, zhěngtǐ 
jiànzhù wàiguān pǔsù qīngyǎ, yǚ jiànzhù zhōubiān de lǜshù, xiǎo huāyán jiéhé, gěirén yīzhǒng níngjìng dànyǎ zhī gǎn. 
Target text: The front elevation is a corridor with pillars on both floors, and the corridor line foot is concise. The overall 
appearance of the building is simple and elegant, combined with the green trees and small gardens around the building, 
giving people a sense of quiet and elegant. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the Czech Consulate, No. 1 North Shameen Street) 
“Elegant” means being well-designed, pleasing, and graceful in appearance or style when referring to a person or things45. It 
is obvious that this conflicts with the meaning of “simple”. Putting the two words together as coordination might lead to noise 
and bewilder foreign tourists. The diction here must be noticed: the conjunction “and” should be replaced for logical purpose. 
Besides, “elegant” is not equivalent to the Chinese word “ ”, and it is also not the only meaning for “ ”. Reusing the same 
word “elegant” in one paragraph also creates redundancy. In the last phrase of the source text, the meaning of “ ” in “

” is similar to that of the previous “ ” in “ ” in Chinese, and it would be better using another appropriate 
word to replace the repeated “elegant” in this paragraph when translating. The character “ ” has several aspects of meaning 
in Chinese; the original translator just misunderstood and failed to choose the correct one here. However it may be, there is 
one core connotation of “ ” – not being ordinary. As for how to extend it, the translator may refer to the context. In the last 
phrase, the source text emphasized the quiet and peaceful environment of places surrounding the building with the word “

”, intended to highlight the not being ordinary in such beauty. Therefore, the noun forms of adjectives likes “peaceful” can 
be used as a substitute for that of “elegant”. 
Additionally, in Chinese, many words are symmetrical in structure for the passage being more energetic and infectious. But 
these words are often repetitive in meaning, like “ ”. “Green tree” is not a popular expression in English-speaking 
countries. In a metropolis, most trees of the greenbelt are green; it is of no use to emphasize their color redundantly. 
Together with free translation, amplification, conversion, and restructuring, the optimization should be like: 

Translation Example 4 (Revised Version) 
Target text: The façade of the first and second floors is designed in prostyle concisely. The overall appearance of the 
building is simple but elegant. The atmosphere of peace and quiet is made stand out by trees and small gardens around 
the building. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the Czech Consulate, No. 1 North Shameen Street) 
3.3 Evaluative and Appraisal Information Type 
This TIT evaluates the factual information and its features. It is usually suggestive and inductive. Translators should properly 
deal with those overloaded expressions with the original author’s strong comments attached to the factual information to avoid 
being influenced by the subjective ideas of the original authors (Luo, 2009, p.32-33). 
Chinese culture is a high-context one. In a high-context culture, communication tends to be imprecise; people assume a 
relatively high level of shared knowledge with the individual they are communicating with. To better understand the meaning, 
people need to pay more attention to their physical surroundings (Mitchell, 2009, p.20-21). That is, in whatever written 
materials or face-to-face conversation, messages are less literally and less directly conveyed. People have to look for more 
information from the context of a message, action, or event. It is the same for C-E translators when translating. 

Translation Example 5 

                                                           
 
4  Collins Press. (January, 2022). Elegant. In Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary (5th ed.). 
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/zh/dictionary/english/elegant 
5 Oxford University Press. (2014). Elegant. In Oxford English Dictionary (8th ed., p.661). 



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Source text: 
 

Source text Romanized: Shāmiàn jiànzhèng le guǎngzhōu jìndàishǐ de biànqiān, liúxià le Sūn Zhōngshān xiānsheng, 
Zhōu Ēnlái zǒnglǐ děng wěirén de zújì, qīnlì le xǚduō zhòngdà lìshǐ shìjiàn, chéngwéi wǒguó jìndài shǐ yǚ zūjiè shǐ de 
suōyǐng. 
Target text: Shāmiàn witnessed the changes of modern history of Guangzhou, left the footprints of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, 
Prime Minister Zhou Enlai and other great men, and experienced many major historical events, thus becoming the 
epitome of China’s modern history and the history of concession. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 
First, exaggerations are usually used when Chinese people make comments. The reality might not be completely consistent 
with the literal meaning of those comments. It is not suggested that translate such comments word for word and sentence for 
sentence, but try to figure out the original author’s idea and restructure the sentences so that unnecessary noise could be 
reduced. Both the first and the last sentences overstate the significance of the Shameen complex. The first sentence “

” exalts that the Shameen complex witnessed the entire modern history of Guangzhou, and the last one 
“ ” even likens it to the epitome of modern history (including the history of concession) of 
the whole country. Both sentences are biased towards the destination; diction here must be carefully treated when translating. 
Second, problems of lacking logic appeared frequently in this example. Actually, “changes of history” cannot be witnessed; 
a place can only witness things like events, phenomena, and so forth. Also, “Shameen” is unable to walk or leave footprints, 
or experience things like human beings; human beings leave footprints in this architectural complex instead. Moreover, for 
the fourth sentence, a place cannot become an example of history in terms of logic and it is better to describe a period of 
history or a historical event as the “epitome of history”. Translators must pay special attention to these kinds of expressions, 
and try not to be influenced by the thinking mode of the mother tongue. For the problems above, diction, omission, and 
conversion are feasible approaches to reduce noise. 
Third, as the original author wanted to stress the historical importance of the Shameen complex here, what giants did when 
they stayed here had better be clarified either – giants had been to many places and where they used to stay does not mean 
anything in most cases – if things giants did are of historical significance. But after investigation, few events about both Mr. 
Sun Yat-sen and Shameen are found. Considering that “ ” covers those small events, omitting these 
redundant descriptions would be better, like: 

Translation Example 5 (Revised Version) 
Target text: Having witnessed many historical events in the modern times of Guangzhou, the Shameen complex is of 
historical importance for modern China. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 
Since “ ” and “ ” are similar in meaning, condensation and restructuring 
are also used in the above optimization. 
Additionally, it is common that Chinese texts would like to make conclusions that can make the theme of the passage more 
sublime and magnificent. These conclusions are often empty and excessively exaggerated. Here is a typical Chinese 
conclusion of passage: 

Translation Example 6 
Source text:  
Source text Romanized: Shāmiàn, bùjǐn shì guǎngzhōu de shāmiàn, gèng shì zhōngguó de shāmiàn, shìjiè de shāmiàn. 
Target text: Shamian belongs not only to Guangzhou, but also to China and the whole world. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 
Although it cannot be denied that Shameen is of significance for the history of architecture, it is still exaggerated to describe 
Shameen as being of the significant meaning to the whole world, especially when compared with well-known tourist 
attractions like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Forbidden City. Descriptions should be downgraded when being translated 
to be moderate in the lower context of English and to avoid misunderstanding. 
Also, the expression of the source text typically embodies the phraseology of Chinese. The original author could have tried 
to highlight the value of Shameen in specific aspects. But limited to the thinking mode of Chinese, he made the conclusion 



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sublime using the Chinese rhetoric of parallel structure, sacrificing details. The original translator was then regrettably misled 
by such means of expression and could do nothing but translate the source text word by word, failing to understand what the 
original author means. 
To reduce the noise of this example, translators should try to figure out what the original author wanted to express actually, 
and then restructure the information by a large amount. From Chinese thinking mode, the meaning of Shameen to Guangzhou, 
China, and even the whole world could be connected with its being architectural complex, or covering a wider range, being 
cultural heritage. Clarification should be extended with conversion if necessary then; the reason why Shameen is meaningful 
can also be added and amplified as a transition. To summarize, an optimized translation can be: 

Translation Example 6 (Revised Version) 
Target text: Considering its distinct architectural characteristics and historical meaning, Shameen is a valuable cultural 
heritage for not only Guangzhou, but also China, and even the whole world. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 
3.4 Cultural Information Type 
Cultural information introduces unique Chinese culture to help readers better understand China. This TIT can easily overload 
information, and the translator should carefully analyze foreign tourists’ demand for learning about Chinese culture (Zeng, 
2005a). When translating, it should be taken into consideration the exact meaning or reference of those culture-loaded words. 
To translate things unique to China, the translator can combine literal translation or transliteration and explanation,  to better 
publicize Chinese culture (Lyv & Pan, 2020). 
Usually, when translating tourism profiles, there is “non-equivalence at culture level” proposed by Christiane Nord, as cited 
by He & Tao (2010). The non-equivalence is more obvious in translating culture-loaded words. To overcome that, Zheng 
(2016) offered six strategies: transliteration, transliteration with notes, literal translation, literal translation with notes, the 
combination of transliteration and literal translation, and free translation. In the following of 3.4 Cultural Information Type, 
transliteration with notes and literal translation with notes will be mainly adopted for Chinese architectural terms. 

Translation Example 7 
Source text: 5 4

 
Source text Romanized: Shǒucéng dàtīng kuān 5 jiān, shēn 4 jiān, yǒu hòu wài láng. Dì èr, sān céng yánjiē chú lóutī 
jiān dōu shè wài láng, yě yǒu hòu láng. Zhōngjiān kāi tiānjǐng bìng zhítōng tiān miàn. Lóutī shè zài dōngxī rùkǒu, dōng 
tī zhǐ shàng èr, sān céng, bùnéng shàng wūdǐng; xī tī bùnéng jìn shǒucéng, dàn kě shàng èr, sān céng hé wūdǐng. 
Target text: The first-floor hall is 5 wide and 4 deep. There are second floors and third floors along the street, except 
for staircases, with external corridors and back corridors. The stair case is located at the entrance to the east and west. 
The East staircase only goes up to the second and third floors. It cannot go up to the roof. The West staircase cannot 
go into the first floor, but it can go up to the second, third and roof. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the former Administration Bureau of Broadcasting 
of the Nationalist Government, No. 73 North Shameen Street) 

“ ” and “ ” are two concepts unique to Chinese traditional architecture. In a room, “ ” is the width of the side 
parallel to the door, and “ ” refers to the length of the side perpendicular to the door. According to the weights and 
measures of the Qing Dynasty, for “ ”, or, the main room of a building, one jian equals 6 meters, while those for “ ” 
and “ ”, or room next to and room furthest away from the main one are shorter. There is no such corresponding 
architectural term in English, and translators commonly metricate this kind of measurement unit unique to Chinese culture, 
or foreign tourists would fail to understand them. Still, apart from converting the first sentence into “the first-floor hall is 
about 30 meters wide and 24 meters long,” the translator may also transliterate and annotate the two “ ” as Zheng suggested, 
but the text can be much longer. To reduce noise, since Shameen is an architecture complex, and, more decisively, since “ ” 
is a concept of Chinese traditional architecture, applying transliteration to “ ” with a note helps highlight the characteristics 
of Eclecticism of this building, contributing to foreign tourists learning about Chinese traditional architecture. As for the note, 
it would be better to use both an annotation as well as a footnote, which can make the main body of the target text tidier and 
more concise. 



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Similarly, “ ” and “ ”, not having been translated in the original translation though, well 
emphasize the characteristic of Eclecticism that it successfully blends Chinese and Western architectural styles, hence are 
recommended to be translated. And to translate the latter one, the translator has to first deal with the culture-loaded word “

” –  similarly to “ ”, transliteration with notes (footnote here also) may suit. As courtyard means “an open space that is 
partly or completely surrounded by buildings and is usually part of a castle, a large house, etc.,” “ ” can be a small 
courtyard within a house that is surrounded by rooms, or rooms and wall sometimes. In addition, as tianjing itself has never 
had a roof, translation for “ ” can be omitted in the target text, and “ ” could be amplified to provide audiences 
with a clearer image. 
In addition, as tourists are not allowed to go into the building, foreign tourists do not have to learn about such full details as 
to where the East staircase and West staircase respectively go up. The last three sentences do not help stress the Eclecticism 
but create redundancy and are better to be deleted, like: 

Translation Example 7 (Revised Version) 
Target text: The hall on the first floor is about 5 jian (30 meters) in width and 4 jian (24 meters) in length with corridors 
outside. There are also external corridors along the street on both the second and the third floors, except for the side 
the staircase is on. Surrounded by the corridors and rooms, there is a tianjing* on the second floor. The staircases are 
located near the entrance to the east and the one to the west. 
*Note: Jian: a unit of length unique to Chinese ancient architecture; one jian equals six meters referring to the 
weights and measures of the Qing Dynasty. Tianjing: a small courtyard within a house that is surrounded by rooms, 
or rooms and walls sometimes; one house may contain one or more tianjings. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the former Administration Bureau of Broadcasting 
of the Nationalist Government, No. 73 North Shameen Street) 

In addition to Chinese architectural terms, Fengshui terms also characterize introductions of attractions in Shameen. First of 
all, Fengshui itself, a large proportion of whose ideas are at variance with materialism and Marxism, is inconsistent with 
Chinese social ideology. When dealing with issues – including translation ones – relevant to that, we have to differentiate the 
idealistic ideas and remove relevant descriptions from the text. To carry forward the positive part of such a culture, notes can 
be added to explain the reason why some ideas make sense or work. For Shameen, Fengshui terms appeared in almost every 
piece of the introduction, for instance: 

Translation Example 8 
Source text:  
Source text Romanized: Lóu gāo sì céng, zuò běi cháo nán, píng dǐng. 
Target text: The building is four stories high, sitting in the north and facing the south, with a flat roof. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the former Administration Bureau of Broadcasting 
of the Nationalist Government, No. 73 North Shameen Street) 

“ ”, or facing south, is a principle of house building following Chinese Fengshui. This is because most buildings in 
ancient China are low in height, few of which being with big trees, tall buildings, or high mountains surrounding. And, much 
of Chinese territory, especially in ancient times, is on the north of the Tropic of Cancer (23°26’ N) – that is, for those regions, 
sunshine goes into houses from the south side. Consequently, a majority of house buildings in ancient China face the south to 
obtain better lighting, and at the same time, to take shelter from the north wind and keep the house warm. 
Fengshui terms like “ ” “ ” can usually be seen in introductions to traditional house buildings in China. 
Really, in most cases, the “ ” can make domestic tourists understand the good location of a building, especially 
residential ones. Considering that foreign tourists are not familiar with Chinese Fengshui, when translating “ ”, the 
translator may add notes or annotations to explain its origin, meaning, and effect. 

Translation Example 8 (Revised Version) 
Target text: Facing south*, the four-storied building has a flat roof. 
*Note: “facing south” is a Chinese Fengshui principle of house building, aiming at good lighting and keeping warm 
since much land of China locates on the north of 23°26’ N; although Shameen locates at 23°10’ N, “facing south” is 
still helpful for lighting in most seasons; and being in the Subtropics, Shameen possesses a warm climate already. 



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(Excerpted from the introduction of the former Administration Bureau of Broadcasting 
of the Nationalist Government, No. 73 North Shameen Street) 

Except for “ ”, the rest of this kind of description is better to be omitted, since locations like “ ”, “
” and “ ” are true of no use to lighting or keeping warm or other else but cause noise. 

The imperial era name originates from ancient China and can be also seen in ancient North Korea, ancient Vietnam, ancient 
Mongolia, and modern Japan. Since the Revolution of 1911, or the Xinhai Revolution, the monarchy being overthrown, 
imperial era name had been abolished in China. However, being a special and unique way of numbering years, it would be 
better not to omit the main part of the Chinese imperial era name, for reducing noise so that foreign tourists can learn more 
about Chinese culture. For example: 

Translation Example 9 
Source text: 1865 1920  
Source text Romanized: ... Jiàn yǘ qīng tóngzhì sì nián (1865), chóngjiàn yǘ 1920 nián. 
Target text: The building was first built in 1865 and rebuilt in 1920. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the Site of HSBC, No. 54 Shameen Street) 
To optimize, the literal translation and annotation should be like: 

Translation Example 9 (Revised Version) 
Target text: The building was first built in the 4th year of Emperor Tongzhi’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1865) and 
rebuilt in 1920. 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the Site of HSBC, No. 54 Shameen Street) 
There is not a commonly used pattern for translating Era name yet. Still, literal translation, relatively less information being 
missed, might be more suitable. Or, for descriptions like this example: 

Translation Example 10 
Source text: 1924  
Source text Romanized: ... Jiàn yǘ zhōnghuá mínguó shísān nián (1924), ... 
Target text: Built in 1924, ... 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the Dodwell & Co. Ltd.(British), No. 61 Shameen Street) 
Optimization could be like this: 

Translation Example 10 (Revised Version) 
Target text: Built in the 13th year of the era of the Republic of China (1924), ... 

(Excerpted from the introduction of the Dodwell & Co. Ltd.(British), No. 61 Shameen Street) 
It is worth attention that, the feudal system had been overthrown before the Republic of China establishing. Therefore, the 
translator should be careful not to use the word “reign”, or additional noise may be created. 
The last problem with translating cultural information is that, because of cultural non-equivalence, there is no corresponding 
word or expression for many appellations like ancient toponyms or government positions in ancient times. For instance, “

” is the governor who is in charge of the military and political affairs of commonly two provinces. In English, the only 
word whose meaning is similar to it is “general” – a high-ranking officer in the armed forces, usually in the army6. These two 
words are not equivalent in meaning. If the translator wants to accurately express the meaning of “ ”, he must use phrases 
or sentences to explain the responsibility as well as the jurisdiction of this position in the form of notes. 
The following is also representative of non-equivalence: 

Translation Example 11 

                                                           
 
6  Collins Press. (March, 2022). General. In Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary (5th ed.). 
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/zh/dictionary/english/general 



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Source text:  
Source text Romanized: Míngdài zài cǐ shè “huá jié tíng”, guǎnlǐ wàishāng huòwù jìnchū; qīngdài zhōngyè zài cǐ jiàn 
xī gù pàotái, gǒngwèi guǎngzhōu chéngchí. 
Target text: Huajie Pavilion was set up here to manage the foreign trades; in the mid Qing Dynasty, Xigu Fort was 
built to defend the city of Guangzhou. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 
The “ ” of “ ” is not an ornamental building in a garden or park7, and should not be translated as “pavilion”. For “ ”, 
there are 3 ways of interpretations that involve border or military affairs: military post set near the border for reconnoitering 
hostile forces; inn, courier station for resting and staying the night; or kiosk, usually sells articles of daily use. Referring to 
the context, the first interpretation is more suitable. The adaptation of translation having reduced noise can be: 

Translation Example 11 (Revised Version) 
Target text: In the Ming Dynasty, Huajie Post was set up here for administrating foreign trades; in the mid-Qing 
Dynasty, Xigu Casemate was built in defense of Guangzhou. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 
3.5 Stylistic Information Type 
Stylistic information refers to linguistic features conveyed through the style of the writer who uses effective devices to 
organize the text so that the text may be attractive to the audience. This TIT can influence the acceptability of the introduction. 
Its transferability is relatively weak; proper adjustments should be made in the process of translating (Luo, 2009, p.33-34). 
In Chinese tourism profiles, stylistic information is distinguished by rhetoric in most cases, parallelism and antithesis in 
especial; some authors who excel at writing may even compose several lines of poetry. For this reason, stylistic information 
is usually flowery in language but inefficient in conveying messages. The information amount of it can be low if it were 
completely translated. Foreign tourists are probably unable to make out what the author is driving at after reading floods of 
ink either. The following one can be a typical example: 

Translation Example 12 
Source text: 

 
Source text Romanized: Wénwù huányüán, xiū jiù rú jiù, lùchū zhēnróng; cuìzhōu gǔlóu, qiānmǐ huājiē, gǔshù 
chènyìng; wánshàn gōnggòng shèshī, zhìlì mínshēng shíshì; chuàngshè fánghóng huā dī, shuǐhuàn jiàn gào yüǎnlí; 
héxié sānwéi shìjiǎo, sùzào wénhuà zhǔtí, yíngdé gèjiè hǎopíng. 
Target text: Cultural relics have been well restored to show their original charm; ancient trees, flowery streets and 
historic buildings benefit by associating together; public facilities have been improved to upgrade people’s livelihood; 
flowery dike has been renovated to protect Shameen from flooding. All these measures shape the cultural theme of 
Shameen, winning it praise from society. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 
At first sight, the translation is like a jumble of ideas: cultural relics, trees, streets, buildings, public facilities, dike, and cultural 
theme, totally of seven subjects are mentioned with poor coherence and cohesion, making it hard for audiences to understand 
the connection among each subject. The heavy use of parallelism and antithesis does not help to communicate information 
clearly at all. 
A translation would be acceptable provided that it conveyed the necessary message of the source text and brought the effect 
that conforms to the cultural context of the target language to readers successfully, even though there might be some 
differences between language styles or contents of the two texts (Li, 2012). To translate the above stylistic introduction, the 
translator needs to remove redundancy by recapitulating and condensing key messages, and reduce the noise by toning down 

                                                           
 
7  Collins Press. (March, 2022). Pavilion. In Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary (5th ed.). 
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/zh/dictionary/english/pavilion 



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the stylistic expressions of the original author as well as restructuring key messages, also improve coherence and cohesion by 
conversion, to make the text more logical and more readable, like: 

Translation Example 12 (Revised Version) 
Target text: The government well restored the cultural relics, improved public facilities, and beautified the environment 
of Shameen, all of which helped show the cultural charm of Shameen and make it enjoy great popularity. 

(Excerpted from the overall introduction of Shameen) 
4. Summary of Translation Strategies 
In this paper on translating the introduction of Shameen attractions based on TIT from the perspective of Communication, 
translation strategies including literal translation with notes, transliteration with notes, free translation, amplification, 
omission, condensation, diction, conversion, restructuring, and extension are involved. 
Generally speaking, Chinese tourism profiles focus more on flowery language, abundant rhetorical devices, emotional 
expressions, etc., which are hard for foreign tourists to comprehend and bring about redundancy and noise. It can be seen in 
the previous analyses of the nineteen examples that, probably, though not necessarily, redundancy is of a stronger connection 
with contents like human geographical characteristics and social identity of the destination, which Chinese, the source 
language features; while noise is more closely related to language style or in-text logic influenced by the thinking mode of 
mother tongue. 
According to Li, when composing tourism profiles, English writers prefer to objectively describe concrete objects with fewer 
rhetorical devices, emphasizing more on providing audiences with a specific image of the scenery of the destination. While, 
Chinese writers often pay more attention to the social identity (e.g. social significance, stage of development) and human 
geographical characteristics of the destination, depictions excerpted from histories or literature accounting for a large 
proportion of the whole introduction in especial; all these might make the destination seemed more appealing to domestic 
tourists, still, for foreign audiences with a different cultural background, such contents can be redundant or hardly understood 
(2012). For removing redundancy, there are mainly two strategies: omission and condensation. Both of them are not only used 
for removing content that contributes nothing to audiences’ learning about things like geography and infrastructures of the 
destination, or their understanding of Chinese culture, but also for improving wording that looks powerful and infectious in 
Chinese but is repeated in meaning in English sometimes. 
Still, when composing tourism profiles, Chinese writers are accustomed to reinforcing a personal perception of the beauty of 
the destination, then making the scenery attractive and alive in tourists’ imagination and resonating with audiences through 
description and rhetorics like exaggeration and metaphor. Hence Chinese tourism profiles are usually filled with flowery 
language and useless content, causing noise in the process of communication (Li, 2012). To reduce noise, more strategies, 
including literal translation with notes, transliteration with notes, amplification, omission, condensation, diction, conversion, 
restructuring, and extension, are involved. If there were more corpora, not limited to Shameen in other words, free translation, 
and even all the above translation strategies, might be also involved in the translation of the five or even all TITs. And, 
different translation strategies need to be flexibly combined and applied when translating, to remove redundancy as well as 
to reduce noise, especially the latter one, helping achieve a better communication effect. 
Grouping the strategies by TIT, there are also interesting discoveries: there are connections between the selection of translation 
strategies and the information amount carried by the TIT. Strategies of free translation, amplification, omission, conversion, 
and restructuring, are applied to the translation of almost every TIT. Particularly, diction should be paid more attention to 
when translating TITs that are with a relatively large amount of information, factual information, descriptive information, and 
cultural information often included. While extension and condensation are more frequently used in the translation of TITs 
carrying a relatively small amount of information, including descriptive information, evaluative and appraisal information, 
and stylistic information in terms of this paper. 
 Table 1. Translation Strategies for TITs Based on Goals of Processing Information 

TIT 
Information 

Amount 
Carried 

Translation Strategies 

Removing 
Redundancy 

Reducing Noise 

Factual Information large omission 
free translation, amplification, omission, diction, 

conversion, restructuring, 



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Descriptive 
Information 

relatively 
large 

omission 
free translation, amplification, omission, diction, 

conversion, restructuring, extension 

Evaluative and 
Appraisal Information 

relatively 
small 

omission, 
condensation 

free translation, amplification, omission, condensation, 
conversion, restructuring, extension 

Cultural Information large omission 
literal translation with notes, transliteration with notes, 

amplification, omission, diction, conversion, restructuring 

Stylistic Information small 
omission, 

condensation 
free translation, amplification, omission, condensation, 

conversion, restructuring 

 
5. Conclusion 
There are differences between the languages and aesthetics of Chinese and Western cultures, Chinese and English tourism 
profiles being good embodiments. To overcome problems caused by the differences and to achieve a better communication 
effect, the translator needs not only to “remove redundancy” from the text, but also to “reduce noise” of the text – both of 
which are not necessarily deleting information. Due to the differences between Chinese and Western cultures, the translator 
may add information or explanation sometimes, or even make changes to the original contents, to fill the gaps in knowledge 
about Chinese culture of Western tourists that the original author did not take into account. At the same time, the translator 
should not only beware of the rebelliousness of the audience but also avoid simply catering to the audience’s preferences – as 
Chinese cultural influence continues to grow, what should be defined as “noise” or “redundancy” should be considered 
carefully. 
In reality, according to Melvin L. Defleur, noises exist in every part of the communication process, and all these noises might 
affect the receiving of information and could have an influence on the communication effect (Hu, 2017, p.104, 106-107). In 
contrast, Shannon and Weaver considered elements and relationships among them in the communication process unchanged; 
they also segregated the process of communication from the society and neglected social influence like political and economic 
factors. In this way, this research can still be extended. 
Shameen is an architectural complex that is of significance in reflecting modern China. This paper, studying translating 
introductions of Shameen attractions, can help enrich research on tourism translation from the perspective of Communication 
and fill in the gap that there is no research on tourism translation of Guangzhou with TIT being applied. Analyses as well as 
conclusions drawn in this paper are not perfect and need to be polished and completed yet. Still, this paper, hopefully, may 
shed some new light on studies on tourism translation of Guangzhou, and even studies on tourism translation from the 
perspective of Communication. 
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