Talk:Place names in China

Mountain vs Hill vs Peak vs Mountain range

Bayan Har Mountains starts "The Bayan Har mountains (Mongolian: Bayan Har Uul, simplified Chinese: 巴颜喀拉山脉; pinyin: Bāyánkālā shānmài).... What is Shanmai?

• Shan = Mountain, Hill, sometimes Mountains as in Tian Shan, Kunlun Shan
• Feng = Peak
• Shanmai = .. mountain range?

TrueColour (talk) 17:57, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, shanmai means mountain range.--Pengyanan (talk) 18:26, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. Maybe something like chain? I tried http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%84%89 ..? So it seems Tian Shan (range) is called Tian Mountain in Chinese. Also, hill and mountain in Chinese are all just "shan". From simply translation one would maybe always get X Mountain, but some of these might be called X Hill in English. I saw some X Shan called X Hill. TrueColour (talk) 23:38, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

• Ling? Sayan Mountains - 薩彥嶺, Sàyàn Lǐng - TrueColour (talk) 17:37, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Pass - Shankou - Guan

Found 山口 Shānkǒu at

• Tanggula Pass - 唐古拉山口 - Tánggǔlā Shānkǒu
• Nathu La - 乃堆拉山口 - Nǎiduīlā Shānkǒu
• Kulma Pass - 阔勒买山口 - kuòlèmài shānkǒu

TrueColour (talk) 22:06, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Intro to formation of Chinese place names

• http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/chinalan.htm Place Names in Chinese

-96.237.4.73 (talk) 04:05, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

-zhou vs. -xian administrative division terms

In the early 1900s, the place east of Beijing now known as Tongzhou 通州 westerners called Tung-chow (-chou) or Tung-hsien. (These administrative division terms are now spelled -zhou and -xian.) Westerners did not seem to understand the difference. What exactly is the difference between these two administrative division terms 州 縣, both in general history/linguistics and with regard to the history of this place?-96.237.4.73 (talk) 23:09, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

I had a look at this when updating the page yesterday. 州, zhou, seems to be an archaic word for a province/district/county. Now there are words for all of these, but 州 appears in some place names today, such as 广州, Guangzhou the city or 贵州, Guizhou the province. It’s perhaps like the English word shire, that appears in many place names of English counties, such as Cheshire, Yorkshire.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 17:49, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

Sources for future article expansion

This needs to be converted into pinyin, but is a good view to what placenames were considered important and common in the 19th century. — LlywelynII 13:20, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

Not sure how useful that is. It’s not in pinyin, nor any Romanisation I recognise. It also seems to be in Cantonese or a mix of varieties Chinese. And it’s clearly meant for navigation maps, with lots of nautical and coastal features. Particularly on the south coast – only three of the four compass directions are listed, not north.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 17:38, 8 May 2017 (UTC)