Abstract:

Public signs symbolize the social civilization，reflecting the cultural qualities，moral cultivation and spiritual presentation of the society.  Furthermore，it plays an important role in publicizing a country or a city to the outside world. Lijiang is an international tourist destination，the translation of public signs affects its image as one of the top tourist cities in China.  Guided by the functionalist Skopos Theory，this paper first introduces the Skopos Theory and explains the public signs. By doing a field survey of Chinese-English(C-E) translation of public signs in some scenic spots in Lijiang，it classifies,compares and analyzes the great number of samples collected.  Then it further analyzes the current situation of English translation of public signs in these scenic spots，the improper translation in particular.  Finally，it proposes solutions to the poor C-E translation of the public signs.

Key words: Lijiang scenic spots, C-E translation of public signs, the Skopos Theory