Country/city names in Chinese

[lilongyue]

Anyone know of a website that has the names of foreign countries and cities in Chinese and English? I've begun translating some news articles, and looking up a country's name is a real pain in the pigu.

[yonglin]

it probably depends on how obscure the names you're looking up are. i usually type the proper name into wikipedia and look at the corresponding page in the other language. dict.cn also holds a number of not-too-obscure geographical names.

i have seen bilingual dictionaries on geographical names in china. actually, there seems to be dictionaries on everything in China. alternatively, a world atlas in each language would probably serve you well.

[skylee]

take a look -> http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/country_names_in_chinese.htm

[lilongyue]

Thanks skylee, that's exactly what I was looking for! Trying to guess how a country's name is transliterated into Chinese isn't easy, and the opposite is also true.

[roddy]

Creative googling can also be very useful. Ie if you have the city name 爱丁堡 and don't know it in English, but know that it's located in Scotland, google 爱丁堡 Scotland and the answer is likely in the results. Doesn't always work, but it's often worth a try.

[trien27]

Skylee, the link is almost perfect. Below are my corrections:

Côte d'Ivoire / Ivory Coast is translated as 科特迪瓦, which is Côte d'Ivoire taken phonetically in Chinese, but most Chinese people prefer to call it "Ivory Coast", using the direct translation of 象牙海岸 xiang ya hai an [to avoid confusion I guess].

In English, it said "Great Britain". In Chinese, it said, "England."

In English, it said "United Kingdom". In Chinese, it said, "England".

Great Britain = England, Scotland & Wales.

United Kingdom = Great Britain + Northern Ireland.

It said "Netherlands" in English. In Chinese, it said, "Holland".

North Holland & South Holland are 2 of 12 provinces in The Netherlands!

Roddy,

"I've only ever seen the phonetic translation and according to Wikipedia it's the Ivory Coast's preferred version."

I've just checked with Wikipedia:

科特迪瓦，又譯象牙海岸

"Côte d'Ivoire" also translated as "Ivory Coast"

Source: First sentence from following website,

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A7%91%E7%89%B9%E8%BF%AA%E7%93%A6

[liuzhou]

In English, it said "Great Britain". In Chinese, it said, "England."

No. In English it says "Great Britain". In Chinese it says "英国 ying1 guo2" which is correct. England is 英格兰 ying1 ge2 lan2.

[Lu]

It said "Netherlands" in English. In Chinese, it said, "Holland".

North Holland & South Holland are 2 of 12 provinces in The Netherlands!

It doesn't say 'Holland', it says 荷蘭. The Chinese for my home country is 荷蘭. Not sure what they do with the provinces, but that's just what the country is called in Chinese.

[OracleBone]

In English, it said "Great Britain". In Chinese, it said, "England."

In English, it said "United Kingdom". In Chinese, it said, "England".

Great Britain = England, Scotland & Wales.

United Kingdom = Great Britain + Northern Ireland.

It said "Netherlands" in English. In Chinese, it said, "Holland".

North Holland & South Holland are 2 of 12 provinces in The Netherlands!

English = 英吉利

England = 英格兰

Great Britain = 大不列颠

United Kindom = 联合王国 (full name in Chinese: 大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国)

Netherlands = 尼德兰

In our Chinese's thinking, Netherlands = Holland + Belgium, isn't it?

[Lu]

Netherlands = 尼德兰

In our Chinese's thinking, Netherlands = Holland + Belgium, isn't it?

Really, do Chinese think that 尼德兰 = 荷蘭 + 比利時? That would be quite strange. In English (and some other languages), the only Netherlands is the country I come from, and Belgium hasn't been part of it for quite some time.

[skylee]

Really, do Chinese think that 尼德兰 = 荷蘭 + 比利時?

For me the Netherlands = 荷蘭. The Netherlands + Belgium + Luxembourg = the low countries (not sure if there is a Chinese name for this).

And I don't use the term 尼德蘭 at all.

[Lu]

Thanks for your input.

The Netherlands + Belgium + Luxembourg = the low countries

'Netherlands' literally means 'low countries'. Interesting that Belgium and Luxembourg are included in this, they're rather hilly, not nearly as flat as NL.

[skylee]

'Netherlands' literally means 'low countries'. Interesting that Belgium and Luxembourg are included in this, they're rather hilly, not nearly as flat as NL.

Forgive my ignorance.

[OracleBone]

尼德兰(The Netherlands, 荷: Nederland)。指莱茵河、马斯河、斯海尔德河下游及北海沿岸一带，相当于今天的荷兰、比利时、卢森堡和法国东北部的一部分。

http://baike.baidu.com/view/344837.htm

[roddy]

Besides Mainland China & Singapore, basically no Chinese would really know what place 科特迪瓦 [literally, it's the phonetic translation of Ivory Coast according to Putonghua from the French name of C^ote d'Ivore!!!'] this is supposed to be . . .

'A majority of the Chinese people' + 'besides Mainland China & Singapore' = a minority of the Chinese people, surely. I've only ever seen the phonetic translation and according to Wikipedia it's the Ivory Coast's preferred version. Handy to know the other version though. Where is it used?

[skylee]

I've only ever seen the phonetic translation and according to Wikipedia it's the Ivory Coast's preferred version. Handy to know the other version though. Where is it used?

I don't live in Mainland China or Singapore. But over here in HK (and of course it is a very small place) I think people will know what you are talking about if you say 象牙海岸. Not so if what you say is 科特迪瓦.