an end to dialects?

[atitarev]

"Lushun -- Port Arthur"

Port Arthur: This name evidently was given by The British to the Chinese city of Lu-shun: possibly because most of them can't pronounce the Chinese name right?

It was called Part Arthur during the Russian occupation of the city. It was and is still often called Порт-Артур [read: Porrt ArtOOr] in Russian. Dalian has a Russian version: Дальний [Dal'ny], which means "remote, far".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BCshunkou#Earlier_history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalian#History

[Mugi]

"Xiamen -- Amoy"

Xia-men: A city in South Fu-jian/Fu-kien province. A-moy is the regional Fu-jianese/

Fu-kienese (maybe Fu-chow/Fu-zhou) dialect of saying the city's name.)

"Amoy" is derived from the pronunciation of 厦门 / 廈門 in the Zhangzhou 漳州 accent: "a-mõi". In Xiamen itself the name is pronounced "e-mng".