<p><a href="http://www.pinyinplaces.com/" rel="nofollow">pinyinplaces.com</a> has an extensive list of countries, cities, and states and provinces. I contacted the author, and he said he compiled the lists by buying a bunch of atlases and country maps from Chinese bookstores and culling the transliterations from them.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-10T20:27:24.380Z
2014-07-16T11:33:22.623Z
2014-07-16T11:33:22.623Z
Don Kirkby
<p>In the PRC, the official agency that decides this seems to be the 中国地名委员会 (China Commission on Place Names).</p>

<p>They published a book called 外国地名译名手册 (Reference Book of Translated Foreign Place Names), which according to <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/395126.htm" rel="nofollow">this Baidupedia entry</a> includes the official translations of 18,000 place names plus general rules for translating place names from several different languages into Chinese.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-09T09:04:58.870Z
2014-07-16T11:33:04.953Z
2014-07-16T11:33:04.953Z
Ironfrost
<p>Is there an official list of place names (esp. for non-Chinese places)? If a bureaucrat or journalist in China is writing about a lesser-known foreign place, how do they determine the characters?</p>

<p>I usually use Google maps for Chinese place names, are these names official in any way? Does anyone know how Google determined the characters for so many obscure places?</p>

<proper-nouns><place-names>
Official place names
# Official place names

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-02-09)

Is there an official list of place names (esp. for non-Chinese places)? If a bureaucrat or journalist in China is writing about a lesser-known foreign place, how do they determine the characters?

I usually use Google maps for Chinese place names, are these names official in any way? Does anyone know how Google determined the characters for so many obscure places?

**Tags:** proper-nouns, place-names


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2012-02-09. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

In the PRC, the official agency that decides this seems to be the 中国地名委员会 (China Commission on Place Names).

They published a book called 外国地名译名手册 (Reference Book of Translated Foreign Place Names), which according to [this Baidupedia entry](http://baike.baidu.com/view/395126.htm) includes the official translations of 18,000 place names plus general rules for translating place names from several different languages into Chinese.


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### Answer by username_1 on 2012-02-10. Score: 1

[pinyinplaces.com](http://www.pinyinplaces.com/) has an extensive list of countries, cities, and states and provinces. I contacted the author, and he said he compiled the lists by buying a bunch of atlases and country maps from Chinese bookstores and culling the transliterations from them.


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