China will from Monday begin creating English-language web sites for some of the country's biggest companies to help foreigners understand what the Chinese brand names mean, a report said.

About 70 percent of Beijing business service company websites don't have English editions, the Beijing Evening News reported on Friday.

Even among tens of internationally-recognized traditional Chinese brands, such as Quan Ju De (Beijing roast duck restaurant chain) and Tong Ren Tang (a supplier of medicinal herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine), fewer than a third have bilingual websites.

The project commences on August 6, 2007, and will involve multilingual translations of company philosophies and slogans for traditional brands. First to be translated will be traditional brands in Beijing areas, coinciding with the one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games, which start on August 8, 2008. It will then be expanded to other parts of China.

Parties involved in the translation project include Transn Information Technology (www.transn.com), Science & Technology Translators Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (www.sttacas.org) and Beijing Traditional Brands Association (www.btba.org.cn).

Suggestions on translations of brands will be collected from Chinese and foreign customers, while an organizing committee will enlist brand experts to help make the final evaluation.
 
(CRI.cn August 6, 2007)