Darling train tickets

Language Log 2014-02-14

In celebration of Valentine's Day, special commemorative train tickets for a trip between Dàlín (大林) and Guīlái (歸來) were a big hit in Taiwan this morning. In this case "Dalin" is treated as standing in for the English "darling."

So the Valentine's eve tickets are regarded as saying "Darling, guīlái", i.e., "Darling, come back."

A couple of sources may be found here (English) and here (Mandarin).

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  (I take it as license to indulge in extra chocolate.)

[Thanks to Mark Swofford]