张冠李戴：中国人经常混淆瑞典和瑞士

Both nations' names are written similarly in Mandarin - Ruidian (Sweden) and Ruishi (Switzerland).

The two European nations - one known for its chocolate, cheese and watches; the other for Ikea, Volvo and the Seventies pop band Abba - have often been confused for each other among the Chinese.

The problem largely stems from the fact that both nations' names are written similarly in Mandarin - Ruidian (Sweden) and Ruishi (Switzerland) – which begin with the same symbol, according to the Swedish Consul General Victoria Li in China.

In an effort to put an end to the mix-up, the Swedish and Swiss consulates in Shanghai have launched a competition on the Swedish Consulate website, asking Chinese people to come up with funny ways to help differentiate the two countries. Submissions can be accepted as a blog post, cartoon, photo, short film or in any other format.

The winner with the best submission will receive a 12-day trip to Sweden and Switzerland and will be expected to report back on their impressions of both countries following the trip, the website states. Entries will be accepted until November 20.

The organisers have also devised a humorous campaign logo portraying a montage of objects and people associated with Sweden and Switzerland on separate maps of each country.

Sweden’s map features meatballs, a Viking, Pippi Longstocking from Astrid Lindgren’s books, as well as two male cartoon figures with a heart between them symbolising gay marriage, which remains illegal in Switzerland. Switzerland's map features cheese, fondue, the Alps and a picture of Roger Federer.

China may not be the only country struggling to tell Sweden and Switzerland apart. Residents of Spanish-speaking countries also fall victim to the confusion as Sweden is spelt ‘Suecia’ in Spanish while Switzerland is called ‘Suiza’.

Sweden and Switzerland aren't the only destinations that have caused confusion among travellers. Last month, a British holidaymaker hoped to explore the architecture of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, but instead mistakenly caught a flight across the Atlantic to the tropical Caribbean island of Grenada following a confusing booking blunder. Earlier this summer, two US holidaymakers were flown to the wrong continent after an airline confused two airport codes.

The misconception between Sweden and Switzerland isn't the only incident for which Chinese tourists have recently come under the light. Last month, Communist Party tourism chiefs issued a “Guidebook for Civilised Tourism”urging first-time Chinese travellers to cut back on poor behaviour including public displays of nose-picking, swimming pool-soiling and the discussion of pork in a bid to improve the country’s image overseas.

China was the biggest spender in international tourism last year, overtaking Italy, Japan, France and Britain, and is the world's fastest-growing tourism source market, according to the latest figures from the World Tourism Organization earlier this year.在普通话中，这两个国家名字写起来有点相似——瑞典（Ruidian）和瑞士（Ruishi）。

这两个欧洲国家，其中一个以它的巧克力，奶酪和手表闻名，另一个则以宜家家居，沃尔沃汽车以及70年代流行乐队Abba而著名。而中国人却经常把两者搞混。

据瑞典驻上海总领事维多利亚（Victory Li）女士说，造成这一问题的很大原因在于这两个国家的名字在中国普通话中写起来有点相似——瑞典（Sweden）和瑞士（Switzerland），他们的第一个字相同。

为了终止这一混淆，瑞典驻上海领事馆近日携手瑞士驻上海领事馆在瑞典领事馆网站上启动了一项创意比赛，邀请中国人民以新颖幽默的方式正确区别出这两个国家。表现形式不限，可以是一篇文章、一幅画、一组照片或一部短片，也可以是其他任何形式。

最佳作品的提交者将获胜，并享有到瑞典和瑞士12日游的机会，随后他可以报告他旅行后关于这两个国家的印象以及网站状态。提交参赛作品的日期将截止到11月20号。

同时组织者还设计了一个幽默的活动标志，在这两个国家各自的地图上以蒙太奇式手法塑造了一些与瑞典和瑞士相关人和事物。

瑞典地图的特色是肉丸，北欧海盗，阿斯特丽·德林格伦书中的长袜子皮皮，以及象征同性婚姻的一幅心连心的两个男性同性恋图片，而同性婚姻在瑞士还是不合法的。而瑞士地图则以奶酪，奶酪火锅，阿尔卑斯山和罗杰·德勒的照片为特色。

但是，中国并不是唯一一个会把瑞典和瑞士搞混的国家。讲西班牙语的国家的民众也经常混淆，他们常把瑞典拼成瑞士，而把瑞士拼成瑞典。

瑞典和瑞士并不是唯一会造成旅客困惑的的目的地。上个月，一位英国度假者希望去探索在西班牙格拉纳达的阿兰布拉宫的建筑，却因为预订混淆了，从而坐错了飞机，横跨大西洋到了格林纳达的热带加勒比岛。今年夏天早些时候，两名美国游客，因为机场弄混了他们的机场代码，而被空运到错误的大陆。

中国人对于瑞典和瑞士之间的误解最近已得到重视。上个月，中国国家旅游局提出了“文明旅游”，“为了提高我国的海外形象，敦促首次旅游的中国游客尽量减少不文明行为，如挖鼻子，污染游泳池以及讨论猪肉相关的话题”。

中国是国际旅游市场中最大的消费国。据今年早些时候世界旅游组织的最新数据显示，去年，中国超过了意大利、日本、法国和英国，成为世界上增长最快的旅游客源市场。