Place Names in Chinese || We’ve Got You Covered From Goa to Guyana [+ Free Quiz Below]
Quick answer: Chinese place names combine Hanzi characters that either carry real meanings (semantic, like 北京 Běijīng = Northern Capital) or approximate a foreign sound (phonetic, like 加拿大 jiā ná dà for Canada).
This guide gives you 250+ countries, cities, US states, Australian states, and Chinese provinces in Hanzi and Pinyin, plus the character logic behind each name and a free quiz at the end.
Want to learn place names in Chinese for countries, cities, and regions around the world?
Good, because we have got hundreds of them for you right here, complete with Hanzi, Pinyin, and where it gets interesting, the literal meanings behind the characters.
So place names in Chinese: we’ll focus on countries and cities, bringing you some of the most popular in Chinese.
TIP💡 Throughout this guide you will see Pinyin written with tone marks above the vowels (like měi or guó). These marks tell you which of the four tones to use, and in Chinese the tone changes the meaning completely. If you are new to tones, practice your Chinese pronunciation with our free tool before diving into the lists below.
Will your city feature?
And while you are here, curious what your own name looks like in Chinese? Get your free Chinese name and see how the same translation logic applies to people as well as places. 🎉
(if it doesn’t, comment below, we’ll include it for you)
Terrain, Direction and History
The Most Common Characters in Chinese Place Names
Place Names in Chinese – European Countries
Let’s start with the UK…
United Kingdom
英国
yīng guó
You can actually also say (although it’s never really said) lián hé wáng guó 联合王国.
联合 means to Unite.
Now of course some of us would rather state we are Welsh, English or Scottish than just British! So…
- England – 英格兰 yīng gé lán
- Scotland – 苏格兰 sū gé lán
- Wales – 威尔士 wēi’ěr shì
- Northern Ireland – 北爱兰组成 běi ài lá
Moving on to some other place names in Chinese for Europe:
- Germany – 德国 dé guó
- France – 法国 fà guó
- Spain – 西班牙 xī bān yá
- Italy – 意大利 yì dà lì
- Portugal – 葡萄牙 pú táo yá
- Denmark – 丹麦 dān mài
- Sweden – 瑞典 ruì diǎn
- Norway – 挪威 nuó wēi
- Finland – 芬兰 fēn lán
- Russia – 俄国 é guó
Notice some of the place names in Chinese sound remarkably similar to the English such as Norway and Finland, whereas other countries bear zero resemblance and are translated with a meaning. This is because some names are phonetic approximations, while others are semantic translations.
Want to understand how these Chinese characters behind place names actually work? We cover that in detail.
One of the more ironic translations which we’ll come to later is America, which, given events in recent times, is an ironic one… read on and you’ll find out what we are talking about!
- Austria – 奥地利 ào dì lì
- Belgium – 比利时 bǐ lì shí
- Bulgaria – 保加利亚 bǎo jiā lì yǎ
- Croatia – 克罗地亚 kè luó dì yà
- Cyprus – 塞浦路斯 sāi pǔ lù sī
- Czech Republic – 捷克 jié kè
- Estonia – 爱沙尼亚 ài shā ní yǎ
- Greece – 希腊 xī là
- Hungary – 匈牙利 xiōng yá lì
- Ireland – 爱尔兰 ài’ěr lán
- Latvia – 拉脱维亚 lā tuō wéi yǎ
Notice we are going through the EU countries here – if your country isn’t on our list, drop us a comment and we’ll gladly expand our list and include your country!
- Lithuania – 立陶宛 lì táo wǎn
- Luxembourg – 卢森堡 lú sēn bǎo
- Malta – 马耳他 mǎ’ěr tā
- Netherlands – 荷兰 hé lán
- Poland – 波兰 bō lán
- Romania – 罗马尼亚 luó mǎ ní yǎ
- Slovakia – 斯洛伐克 sī luò fá kè
- Slovenia – 斯洛文尼亚 sī luò wén ní yǎ
- Switzerland – 瑞士 ruì shì
Place Names in Chinese – The Americas
North America
North America is nice and easy, there are only two to show you… but we like the irony of America as we mentioned earlier:
- America – 美国 měi guó
- Canada – 加拿大 jiā ná dà
Whilst Canada is clearly a phonetic translation that sounds fairly close to Canada itself, the translation of America is literally ‘Beautiful Country’. Let’s break that down character by character so you can see how this works:
美国 (Měiguó)
美 (měi) = beautiful
国 (guó) = country / nation
Put them together: Beautiful Country. 🤔
This is the pattern you will find across Chinese place names for foreign countries. Sometimes it is purely phonetic (the characters sound like the foreign name). Sometimes it is semantic (the characters carry a real meaning). And sometimes it is a blend of both. Once you spot the pattern, reading new place names becomes much faster.
Of all the countries in the world, China gave the honour of the world’s beautiful country to America… I guess once upon a time, the two countries had slightly better relations!
South America
Now let’s head down to South America.
- Argentina – 阿根廷 ā gēn tíng
- Bolivia – 玻利维亚 bō lì wéi yǎ
- Brazil – 巴西 bā xī
- Chile – 智利 zhì lì
- Colombia – 哥伦比亚 gē lún bǐ yǎ
- Ecuador – 厄瓜多尔 è guā duō’ěr
- French Guiana – 法属圭亚那 fà zhǔ guī yǎ nà
- Guyana – 圭亚那 guī yǎ nà
- Paraguay – 巴拉圭 bā lā guī
- Peru – 秘鲁 bì lǔ
- Suriname – 苏里南 sū lǐ nán
- Uruguay – 乌拉圭 wū lā guī
- Venezuela – 委内瑞拉 wěi nèi ruì lā
And of course, not forgetting our friends in Central America:
- Cuba – 古巴 gǔ bā
- Mexico – 墨西哥 mò xī gē
- Panama – 巴拿马 bā ná mǎ
- Costa Rica – 哥斯达黎加 gē sī dá lí jiā
- Nicaragua – 尼加拉瓜 ní jiā lā guā
- Honduras – 洪都拉斯 hóng dū lā sī
- El Salvador – 萨尔瓦多 sà’ěr wǎduō
- Guatemala – 危地马拉 wēi dì mǎ lā
- Belize – 伯利兹 bó lì zī
And as a bonus for you how about the states in America as well…!
Place Names in Chinese – African Countries
Over to Africa we go next:
- Nigeria – 奈及利亚 nài jí lì yǎ
- Ethiopia – 埃塞俄比亚 āi sāi’é bǐ yǎ
- Egypt – 埃及 āi jí
- DR of Congo – 刚果民主共和国 gāng guǒ mín zhǔ gòng hé guó
- Tanzania – 坦桑尼亚 tǎn sāng ní yǎ
- South Africa – 南非 nán fēi
- Kenya – 肯尼亚 kěn ní yǎ
- Uganda – 乌干达 wū gān dá
- Algeria – 阿尔及利亚 ā’ěr jí lì yǎ
- Sudan – 苏丹 sū dān
- Morocco – 摩洛哥 mó luò gē
- Mozambique – 莫桑比克 mò sāng bǐ kè
- Ghana – 加纳 jiā nà
- Angola – 安哥拉 ān gē lā
- Somalia – 索马里 suǒ mǎ lǐ
- Tunisia – 突尼斯 tú ní sī
- Senegal – 塞内加尔 sài nèi jiā’ěr
- Cameroon – 喀麦隆 kā mài lóng
- Ivory Coast – 象牙海岸 xiàng yá hǎi’àn
- Zimbabwe – 津巴布韦 jīn bā bù wéi
- Madagascar – 马达加斯加 mǎ dá jiā sī jiā
We’ve hosted students from ALL over the globe and that is no exaggeration! Madagascar, Haiti, Estonia, Reunion and even a city on the Sakhalin Island which I bet there’s a strong chance you’ve never even heard of!
Our student on the Sakhalin Island was from a city called Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk by the way!
Place Names in Chinese – Asia & Oceania
Our next stop is Asia and Australasia, the former being the home of LTL of course, along with some of the world’s most incredible countries!
We’ll start off with four places very close to our heart of course…
- China – 中国 zhōng guó
- Taiwan – 台湾 tái wān
- Hong Kong – 香港 xiāng gǎng
- Macau – 澳门 ào mén
Remember if you go to Taiwan or Hong Kong traditional Chinese and NOT simplified Chinese is used.
Likewise, Hong Kong’s main language is Cantonese and not Mandarin, so be aware on what to expect depending on which of the four above places you end up going to.
Now moving onto other areas of Asia:
- Japan – 日本 rì běn
- South Korea – 韩国 hán guó
- North Korea – 朝鲜 cháo xiǎn
- Vietnam – 越南 yuè nán
- Thailand – 泰国 tài guó
- Cambodia – 柬埔寨 jiǎn pǔ zhài
- Singapore – 新加坡 xīn jiā pō
- India – 印度 yìn dù
- Indonesia – 印度尼西亚 yìn dù ní xī yà
- Mongolia – 蒙古 méng gǔ
- Malaysia – 马来西亚 mǎ lái xī yà
- Philippines – 菲律宾 fēi lǜ bīn
- Sri Lanka – 斯里兰卡 sī lǐ lán kǎ
- Maldives – 马尔代夫 mǎ’ěr dài fū
And Oceania…
- Australia – 澳大利亚 ào dà lì yǎ
- New Zealand – 新西兰 xīn xī lán
- Papua New Guinea – 巴布亚新几内亚 bā bù yǎ xīn jǐ nèi yǎ
- Fiji – 斐济 fěi jì
ANOTHER BONUS – Here are the states of Australia for you as well!
How Chinese Place Names Work // Terrain, Direction and History
Every Chinese place name tells a small story. Once you understand the building blocks, you can decode an unfamiliar name without a dictionary.
Chinese place names are built from characters (汉字, Hàn zì) that carry real meanings. Most names combine two to four characters, and each character contributes something: a geographic feature, a compass direction, a dynasty reference, or a phonetic approximation of a foreign word.
Here are the patterns you will see again and again:
Direction characters
北 (běi) = north, 南 (nán) = south, 东 (dōng) = east, 西 (xī) = west
Think of 北京 (Běijīng) = Northern Capital, or 南京 (Nánjīng) = Southern Capital.
Terrain and water characters
山 (shān) = mountain, 河 (hé) = river, 海 (hǎi) = sea, 江 (jiāng) = large river, 湖 (hú) = lake
These appear constantly: 上海 (Shànghǎi) literally means ‘on the sea’, 云南 (Yúnnán) means ‘south of the clouds’.
Gate and capital characters
京 (jīng) = capital, 门 (mén) = gate, 州 (zhōu) = prefecture
广州 (Guǎngzhōu) = Guang Prefecture, a name rooted in the ancient Guang region dating back over 2,000 years.
Phonetic approximations (for foreign place names)
When Chinese needs to represent a foreign place name, characters are chosen primarily for their sound, not their meaning. 加拿大 (jiā ná dà) for Canada is a good example: the characters mean ‘add, take, big’ but together they simply sound like ‘Canada’.
TIP💡 Knowing these building blocks turns every new place name into a small reading exercise. Check out the Chinese characters behind place names for a deeper look at how Hanzi works.
The Most Common Characters in Chinese Place Names
If you look across hundreds of Chinese city and town names, the same characters appear over and over. Here are the ones worth recognising:
- 市 (shì) = city: used in official city names, e.g., 北京市 (Běijīng Shì, Beijing City)
- 省 (shěng) = province: e.g., 广东省 (Guǎngdōng Shěng, Guangdong Province)
- 县 (xiàn) = county
- 镇 (zhèn) = town
- 村 (cūn) = village
- 区 (qū) = district
- 路 (lù) = road/route: appears in street-level addresses
- 江 (jiāng) = large river: e.g., 黑龙江 (Hēilóngjiāng, Black Dragon River)
- 山 (shān) = mountain: e.g., 山东 (Shāndōng, East of the Mountain)
- 湖 (hú) = lake: e.g., 湖南 (Húnán, South of the Lake)
Spot these characters and you can immediately orient yourself on a Chinese map, even as a beginner. 💡
Famous Chinese Cities // What Their Names Actually Mean
Before we get to world cities, let’s look at some of the most famous cities in China itself and what their names tell you.
Beijing 北京 (Běijīng)
北 (běi) = north + 京 (jīng) = capital. Beijing is literally the Northern Capital. The name was formalised during the Ming Dynasty in 1421 when the emperor moved the seat of power north from Nanjing.
Shanghai 上海 (Shànghǎi)
上 (shàng) = upon/above + 海 (hǎi) = sea. Shanghai means ‘upon the sea’, a reference to its position at the mouth of the Yangtze River delta. It grew into a major port during the Song Dynasty.
Guangzhou 广州 (Guǎngzhōu)
广 (guǎng) = broad/expansive + 州 (zhōu) = prefecture. Guangzhou translates roughly as ‘Broad Prefecture’. It is one of China’s oldest continuously inhabited cities and the name dates back over 2,000 years to the ancient Guang region. You may also hear it called Canton in older English texts, which comes from a Portuguese rendering of ‘Guangdong’, the province it sits in.
Xi’an 西安 (Xī’ān)
西 (xī) = west + 安 (ān) = peace/tranquility. Xi’an means ‘Western Peace’. The city served as the capital under multiple dynasties including the Qin, Han and Tang, and was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road.
Nanjing 南京 (Nánjīng)
南 (nán) = south + 京 (jīng) = capital. Nanjing is the Southern Capital, the mirror image of Beijing. It served as China’s capital during the early Ming Dynasty and again in more recent history.
Chengdu 成都 (Chéngdū)
成 (chéng) = to become/accomplish + 都 (dū) = capital/metropolis. The name is traditionally interpreted as ‘becoming a capital in one year, a city in two’. Chengdu has been a major urban centre for over 2,300 years.
TIP💡 You’ll notice Beijing, Nanjing, and Xi’an all reflect China’s long history of shifting imperial capitals. If you want to study in any of these cities, find your perfect Mandarin program and we’ll help you choose.
Place Names in Chinese – Popular Cities
OK so clearly we can’t fit every city, town and area in here, as extensive as our content is, that’s a step just a bit too far for us!
It took me long enough to find the translation for my hometown, Cheltenham, England (it’s 切尔滕纳姆 qiè ěr téng nà mǔ by the way).
So, without any bias whatsoever, here are a list of popular worldwide cities with their Chinese translations.
As ever, if you want us to feature you city, town, province, area, or whatever else you call it… drop us a comment, we’ll gladly expand our list!
- Tokyo – 东京 dōng jīng
- Bangkok – 曼谷 màn gǔ
- Barcelona – 巴塞罗那 bā sè luō nà
- Milan – 米兰 mǐ lán
- Paris – 巴黎 bā lí
- Bali – 巴厘岛 bā lí dǎo
NOTE – Paris and Bali are incredibly similar, lesson to learn?
TONES AND CONTEXT MATTER.
In this situation even the tones are exactly the same so both cities are spoken in exactly the same manner despite the fact the 2nd characters differ. CONTEXT IS KEY but make sure you nail those tones first and foremost.
Scared of tones? Don’t be, master them in two minutes with Amy!
OK back on track…
- Phuket – 普吉岛 pǔ jí dǎo
- London – 伦敦 lún dūn
- Osaka – 大阪 dà bǎn
- Seoul – 首尔 shǒu’ěr
- Mecca – 麦加 mài jiā
- Istanbul – 伊斯坦堡 yī sī tǎn bǎo
- New York – 纽约 niǔ yuē
- Kuala Lumpur – 吉隆坡 jí lóng pō
- Dubai – 迪拜 dí bài
- Mumbai – 孟买 mèng mǎi
- Rome – 罗马 luó mǎ
- Prague – 布拉格 bù lā gé
- Las Vegas – 拉斯维加斯 lā sī wéi jiā sī
- Los Angeles – 洛杉矶 luò shān jī
- Hanoi – 河内 hé nèi
- Berlin – 柏林 bó lín
- Moscow – 莫斯科 mò sī kē
100+ Words and Phrases About Places in Chinese // Beginner Level
100+ vocabularies about places in Chinese meant as a starting point for beginners, to be able to share more details about what they did during the weekend.
- Amsterdam – 阿姆斯特丹 ā mǔ sī tè dān
- Ankara – 安卡拉 ān kǎ lā
- Athens – 雅典 yǎ diǎn
- Baghdad – 巴格达 bā gé dá
- Bonn – 波恩 bō ēn
- Bordeaux – 波尔多 bō ěr duō
- Bratislava – 布拉迪斯拉发 bù lā dì sī lā fā
- Brussels – 布鲁塞尔 bù lǔ sài ěr
- Bucharest – 布加勒斯特 bù jiā lè sī tè
- Budapest – 布达佩斯 bù dá pèi sī
- Cairo – 开罗 kāi luó
- Calcutta – 加尔各答 jiā ěr gè dá
- Cape Town – 开普敦 kāi pǔ dūn
- Chicago – 芝加哥 zhī jiā gē
- Copenhagen – 哥本哈根 gē běn hā gēn
- Dar-es-Salaam – 达累斯萨拉姆 dá lèi sī sà lā mǔ
- Durban – 德班 dé bān
- Düsseldorf – 杜塞尔多夫 dù sài er duō fū
- Florence – 佛罗伦萨 fó luò lún sà
- Frankfurt – 法兰克福 fǎ lán kè fú
- Geneva – 日内瓦 rì nèi wǎ
- Johannesburg – 约翰内斯堡 yuē hàn nèi sī bǎo
- Ljubljana – 卢布尔雅那 Lúbù ěr yǎ nà
- Madrid – 马德里 mǎ dé lǐ
- Maribor – 马里博尔 mǎ lǐ bó ěr
- Marseille – 马赛 mǎ sài
- Mexico City – 墨西哥城 mò xī gē chéng
- Miami – 迈阿密 mài ā mì
- Montreal – 蒙特利尔 méng tè lì ěr
- Munich – 慕尼黑 mù ní hēi
- Nairobi – 内罗毕 nèi luó bì
- Naples – 那布勒斯 nà bù lēi sī
- Torino – 都灵 dū líng
- Venice – 威尼斯 wēi ní sī
- Vienna – 维也纳 wéi yě nà
- Warsaw – 华沙 huá shā
- Washington – 华盛顿 huá shèng dùn
- Zurich – 苏黎世 sū lí shì
Place Names in Chinese – Funny Translations
Kazan – 喀山 kā shān
Poor old Kazan in Russia has been labelled a” vomiting mountain” by the Chinese… why, we’ll never know!
Goa – 果阿 guǒ ā
Goa, a state in Western India, has the literal translation of “Fruit, Ah” in Chinese!
Yerevan – 埃里温 āi lǐ wēn
Another harsh translation for our friends in Armenia here I’m afraid which does tourism from Chinese to Armenia no favours!
Your capital, the delightful Yerevan translates literally in Chinese to “Dusty Warm Village” or if we are being exact “Dust, Village, Warm”.
Although I’ve personally never been to Yerevan I can say with confidence there are surely dustier places on the planet… and ironically some of those lie in China!
Fes – 菲斯 fēi sī
Morocco’s third largest city has a rather odd translation in Chinese, which literally reads “Not This”
Want to make sure you are saying these correctly and not accidentally getting the tones wrong? Practice your Chinese pronunciation with our free tool and hear how each syllable should sound.
Do you know anymore funny translations in Chinese? Share them below and we’ll add them to our list!
Place Names in Chinese – Chinese Provinces
As you will be well aware if you watched the video above, China is BIG!
The country is split up into a number of areas which are called provinces think States in America, Counties in the UK, or Regioni in Italy.
You will notice there are four cities listed also, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing.
These are known as “municipalities” and are under the direct administration of the central government. China has four of them in total.
| Chinese Province in Hanzi | Chinese Province in Pinyin |
|---|---|
| 安徽 | ān huī |
| 北京 | běi jīng |
| 重庆 | chóng qìng |
| 福建 | fú jiàn |
| 广东 | guǎng dōng |
| 广西 | guǎng xī |
| 甘肃 | gān sù |
| 贵州 | guì zhōu |
| 河南 | hé nán |
| 河北 | hé běi |
| 湖南 | hú nán |
| 湖北 | hú běi |
| 海南 | hǎi nán |
| 黑龙江 | hēi lóng jiāng |
| 吉林 | jí lín |
| 江苏 | jiāng sū |
| 江西 | jiāng xī |
| 辽宁 | liáo níng |
| 内蒙古 | nèi méng gǔ aka Inner Mongolia |
| 宁夏 | níng xià |
| 青海 | qīng hǎi |
| 四川 | sì chuān |
| 山东 | shān dōng |
| 山西 | shān xī |
| 陕西 | shǎn xī |
| 上海 | shàng hǎi |
| 天津 | tiān jīn |
| 新疆 | xīn jiāng |
| 西藏 | xī zàng aka Tibet |
| 云南 | yún nán |
| 浙江 | zhè jiāng |
If any of these provinces have caught your attention and you are thinking about studying Mandarin in China, you can study Mandarin across Chinese cities with LTL, from Beijing in the north to Beihai in the south.
There we have it, a mammoth list of countries, cities and place names in Chinese.
Let’s keep growing it further, comment below with your hometown!
Place Names in Chinese – Quiz
If you love learning about country names in different languages why not check out our super guide to learning the countries of the world in Japanese too!
Place Names in Chinese – FAQs
How do you say the UK in Chinese?
United Kingdom is 英国 yīng guó
You can actually also say (although it’s never really said) lián hé wáng guó 联合王国.
联合 means to Unite.
Now of course some of us would rather state we are Welsh, English or Scottish than just British! So…
England – 英格兰 yīng gé lán
Scotland – 苏格兰 sū gé lán
Wales – 威尔士 wēi’ěr shì
Northern Ireland – 北爱兰组成 běi ài lá
How do you say USA in Chinese?
America is 美国 měi guó
The translation of America is literally (Beautiful Country)
How do you say Milan in Chinese?
Milan in Chinese is 米兰 mǐ lán
How do you say Barcelona in Chinese?
Barcelona in Chinese is 巴塞罗那 bā sè luō nà
How do you say Bangkok? in Chinese?
Bangkok in Chinese is 曼谷 màn gǔ
How do you say Japan in Chinese?
Japan in Chinese is日本 rì běn which means the foundation of the Sun
How do you say Hong Kong in Chinese?
Hong Kong in Chinese is 香港 xiāng gǎng
How do you say Brazil in Chinese?
Brazil in Chinese is 巴西 bā xī
What are some common Chinese names for places?
The most common patterns use direction characters (北 běi = north, 南 nán = south) or terrain characters (山 shān = mountain, 海 hǎi = sea) combined with a geographic or historical word.
Examples include 北京 (Běijīng, Northern Capital), 上海 (Shànghǎi, Upon the Sea), and 南京 (Nánjīng, Southern Capital).
Foreign place names are usually transliterated phonetically, so the characters are chosen for sound rather than meaning.
What are the names of Chinese cities in Chinese?
Here are ten major Chinese cities with their Hanzi and Pinyin:
北京 Běijīng (Beijing), 上海 Shànghǎi (Shanghai), 广州 Guǎngzhōu (Guangzhou), 成都 Chéngdū (Chengdu), 西安 Xī’ān (Xi’an), 南京 Nánjīng (Nanjing), 杭州 Hángzhōu (Hangzhou), 武汉 Wǔhàn (Wuhan), 重庆 Chóngqìng (Chongqing), and 深圳 Shēnzhèn (Shenzhen).
Each name carries a meaning rooted in geography or history.
What is Jesus called in China?
Jesus is called 耶稣 (Yēsū) in Mandarin Chinese.
This is a phonetic transliteration: 耶 (yē) and 稣 (sū) together approximate the sound of ‘Jesus’ as closely as possible in Chinese syllables. The characters themselves do not carry a religious meaning independently.
What are the top 3 Chinese last names?
The three most common Chinese surnames are 王 (Wáng), 李 (Lǐ), and 张 (Zhāng).
Together they are shared by roughly 300 million people. 王 means ‘king’, 李 originally referred to the plum tree, and 张 relates to a stretched bowstring.
Note that surnames in Chinese come before given names, opposite to Western convention.
What is a common local place name in China?
Across China you will find thousands of villages, towns, and districts whose names follow repeating patterns.
Characters like 村 (cūn, village), 镇 (zhèn, town), and 县 (xiàn, county) appear constantly as suffixes. A name like 石村 (Shí Cūn) simply means ‘Stone Village’, while 新镇 (Xīn Zhèn) means ‘New Town’. These patterns make local names surprisingly readable once you know a handful of characters.
How do you say country names in Chinese?
Most country names in Chinese are phonetic transliterations where characters are chosen to approximate the foreign sound.
However, some countries received meaningful translated names: 美国 (Měiguó) for the USA literally means ‘Beautiful Country’, 德国 (Déguó) for Germany means ‘Virtuous Country’, and 法国 (Fǎguó) for France means ‘Country of Law’. These meaningful translations were assigned during the Qing Dynasty period of active diplomacy.
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What about Torino!!
Torino in Chinese is 都灵 dū líng Gio.
Just for you we've added it to the main list 🙂
Amazing, grazie!
Hi, and thanks for the article, very helpful! I am from Slovenia. Our two main cities are Ljubljana and Maribor. How would they be transcribed in Chinese? Also I'm wondering about Los Angeles 🙂 Thanks for the help!!
Hi Adriano,
Our pleasure. Here are the three cities you requested.
Ljubljana - 卢布尔雅那 Lúbù ěr yǎ nà Maribor - 马里博尔 mǎ lǐ bó ěr Los Angeles - 洛杉矶 luò shān jī
We've also added them to our main article, hopefully helping fellow Slovenian's like yourself! Ljubljana is a really cool place!
All the best
LTL
Hello! Wonderful list, just sad my country wasn't on it. Please let me know how to say Switzerland, and Zurich in Mandarin!
Hi Beatrice!
No problem, we have added both of those to the main article for you. Always happy to help our readers!
Switerland is 瑞士 ruìshì Zurich is 苏黎世 sūlíshì
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Amazing, love the list!
🤩
Some South African cities, please 😊🙏
Good idea, we're on it!
I've always wondered what Peoria (the one in Illinois) is
That'd be 皮奥里亚 (pí ào lǐ yà)