Opinion | 'I was here' Chinese carving on ancient Egyptian wall is decried on Weibo
“Ding Jinhao visited this place,” a not-so-mysterious carving reads on a wall of Egypt's fabled Luxor Temple.
Etched into a 3,000-year-old clay wall of Luxor's most fabled temple is now a strange inscription that looks nothing like what an ancient Egyptian might write.
Locals and archaeologists have made nothing of it, but one humiliated Chinese tourist was able to point out the culprit almost immediately. “Ding Jinhao visited this place,” the carving read – in modern Chinese characters.
“I tried to wipe it with a paper towel, but it didn’t come off. I didn’t dare to use water because the relic was more than 3,000 years old,” a disgraced Shen said on his Sina Weibo account. He said he apologised to the tour guide but still felt ashamed even after he was told it wasn’t his fault.
Shen’s post racked up more than a 100,000 Weibo comments by Sunday, with most users slamming whoever “Ding Jinghao” was for having "no quality" and being a national “shame”.