Lucky Dragon     
 Chinese        

Here are some words to describe locations in and around China. Remember that literal translations of geographical place names can often make sense!

Sichuan and Hunan, as well as being provinces of China, refer to two styles of cooking. Sichuan is often spelled "Szechuan" or "Szechwan".

Nearly all of the provinces and regions have descriptive or colorful names:

The four points of the compass

are found in many Chinese place names

and help to tell someone where the place is:

Some location examples:

山大在河北北邊.


河北東邊有黃海.


湖南西邊有高山.


大山在湖南西邊.


東京西邊有中國.


大山在湖南西邊.

Add ren to the place-name to describe the native:

There are plenty of mountains in China. Here are some examples of how to translate position and direction, using the mountain for illustration:

Commonly-used abbreviations:

Related geographical words:

Beijing has been the capital of China more or less continuously for the past 700 years. In ancient times it was significant as a trading center; situated strategically inside the Great Wall, the city was at the crossroads of trade flowing between China and areas to the north. Later on it became the home of the Imperial court and the administrative center of the country.

In 1928 Chiang-Kai-Shek's government established the capital in Nanjing ('Southern Capital'), called 'Nanking' by cartographers. During this period the former capital, Beijing, was renamed as Beiping ('Northern Peace'), but translated as 'Peiping' by mapmakers. The capital stayed in Nanjing until 1949, when it returned to Beijing.

On earlier maps, one may see the capital "Beijing" spelled as "Peking" or "Peiping."