Watch your step

When visiting a foreign country with a foreign language, it is generally recommended to learn a few local phrases as a common courtesy. I like to learn the regulars - please, thank you, washroom, where is this helicopter going?, what hospital are you taking me to?, yadda, yadda and a couple extra useless phrases since you never know when a useless phrase will come in handy.

So here is a useless / useful? phrase you can use when in China (spelled the way it sounds in my head):

Sho shing jia shiao (say it in a real soft, whispery voice).*

Translation: watch your step.

I learned that one early on in the Beijing and Qingdao airports. Elevators, escalators, moving sidewalks. All are concerned about the placement of your feet.

So. If you tuck away foreign phrases in your memory banks, feel free to add this one. You never know. You might get a chance to use it.

*I'm not sure about the Cantonese / Mandarin thing. We were in a Mandarin-speaking part of China, but a Cantonese-speaking friend of mine told me what it meant and how to say it.