256 Place Names in Chinese 🌏 Rotterdam or Anywhere, Liverpool or Rome...

Place Names in Chinese || We’ve Got You Covered From Goa to Guyana [+ Free Quiz Below]

Want to discover some of the world’s most famous place names in Chinese? Good because we’ve got a wealth of them for you right here.

[By the way, if you didn’t quite get the title reference “Rotterdam or Anywhere, Liverpool or Rome…” then I guess you aren’t a fan of Beautiful South!]

So place names in Chinese – we’ll focus on countries and cities, bringing you some of the most popular in Chinese.

Will yours feature?

(if it doesn’t, comment below, we’ll include it for you)

Place Names in Chinese || European Countries

Place Names in Chinese || The Americas

Place Names in Chinese || Africa

Place Names in Chinese || Asia and Oceania

Place Names in Chinese || Popular Cities Around The World

Place Names in Chinese || Funny Translations

Place Names in Chinese || Chinese Provinces

TEST YOURSELF || Quiz

We’ve already made a video about various places you’d visit often (think train stations, restaurants, bus stops, airports etc) which you can check out here.

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 bare zero resemblance but are translated with a meaning.

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).

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 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!

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

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• 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”

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.

Here are those provinces.

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.

DID YOU KNOW – many Chinese cities have their own nicknames, find out our favourite Chinese city nicknames here.

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

Time's up

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

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