Geographical locations in Chinese format?

[Sgt_Strider]

I'm not sure how to properly title this thread so that's the best that I can come up with.

I'm trying to figure out how the Chinese categorizes their geographical formats when identifying locations. For example, in the US (pretty sure it's like this in all of the English speaking world), we would write out Los Angeles, California, USA. It goes from city, state, and then country.

How is it normally done in Chinese? I think I've seen it going from country, province, and then city. I could be wrong. It would be great if someone can tell me how it's normally written out and give an example say with the city of Guangzhou or whatever you have in mind.

My purpose is to label some of my images for exhibition purposes.

[abcdefg]

You are right. In Chinese the labeling is done in the reverse order to in the US. It goes from the larger geographical unit to the smaller. So instead of being Los Angeles, California, USA, it would be USA, California, Los Angeles.

Using your Guangzhou example, it would be China, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou City.

[Sgt_Strider]

How would it appear in Chinese though? In English, you wouldn't type out Guangdong Province because it's already a given that it's a province. Just like how wouldn't type out Los Angeles City. In certain cases, there are exceptions as in New York City.

[abcdefg]

If you mean how would appear written in Chinese characters, it would be 中国广东省广州市。In Chinese you actually do normally insert the words "province" and "city" since they don't use commas to separate the different parts of an address.

My purpose is to label some of my images for exhibition purposes.

In labeling your images for the exhibition I would suggest using the Chinese order if you are using Chinese characters, but would suggest using the English order if using the English version of the place names.

Not to beat it to death, but that would be done with commas instead of the words "province" and "city." For example: Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

Does that clear it up? If not, please reply, and we'll eventually hash it out.

[abcdefg]

I now see you have asked some address questions in the past, so I'll add a footnote. If you want to include other information when specifying location using Chinese characters, you would add them in that same (large to small) order.

For example, Jianshui is a smallish city in Honghe Prefecture in Yunnan, and is written as 中国云南省红河州建水县城。(县城 because it's a county-level city.)

Similarly, the Pan Long District of Kunming would be inserted as 中国云南省昆明市盘龙区, with the actual street address following.

Not sure how much geographical detail you want to provide with your photos.

[Sgt_Strider]

Yes, I meant with Chinese characters and you're right, I don't recall seeing them using commas to separate the geographical locations.

Thanks for getting even more specific. I vaguely remember the need to specify province and city with the Chinese description. What about for places like Fenghuang in Hunan? For the English captions, I would just type out Fenghuang, Hunan, China. I have no idea how I would do that in Chinese. If I remember correctly Fenghuang is a county and not a city, but it could be a county-level city, which is not something that I really understand because I don't think there's an equivalent in the US. The computer that I'm using doesn't have any pinyin software installed at the moment, but would it go something along the lines of Zhongguo hunansheng fenghuangxiancheng? I spaced them out to make it easier to read.

Thanks for the help though. You've been amazing and I'm definitely learning something from you!

[abcdefg]

Glad that helped. I didn't want to be too pedantic.

And you're right, Fenghuang is a county-level city or town There's no US equivalent to that. The political subdivisions in China and the US only correspond roughly, not exactly, and I find it pretty complicated to understand or explain.

The computer that I'm using doesn't have any pinyin software installed at the moment, but would it go something along the lines of Zhongguo hunansheng fenghuangxiancheng?

Yes, it would be 中国湖南省凤凰县城 or just 中国湖南省凤凰县 (without the 成）。 Xiancheng 县城 is usually used to indicate that the town is the county seat, the place where county government offices are located. As far as I can tell, Fenghuang doesn't serve those bureaucratic functions.

When I'm trying to write up something about a place in China I've visited and I don't know the correct designation (city vs. county vs. village and so on) I usually first try Wikipedia. It almost always has that information, as well as the correct Hanzi and Pinyin (in the sidebar over to the right.)

Then, once I have the proper Hanzi, I can cross-check the details by pulling up a Baidu map. The map usually has a "thumbnail summary" of key information about the place (in a sidebar over to the left.)

http://en.wikipedia....enghuang_County

http://map.baidu.com...f-8&s=s&wd=湖南凤凰

I like to travel in China and one of the main projects I've tackled this year has been to try and learn to use resources that are designed for native people instead of foreign tourists. They are so much richer, more detailed, more up to date and more accurate. It has not been easy, and I'm a long way from mastery.

[Sgt_Strider]

You've been amazing. I have definitely learned a lot from you. I think things are a lot clearer now than it was a couple of days ago.

Thank you!

[abcdefg]

You're welcome. I'm blushing.

[Sgt_Strider]

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I have some more questions to ask. What if the location is a scenic area like 黄山 or 泰山? How will that be labelled?

[abcdefg]

Though I don't know where to find a definitive or "official" answer, for the purpose of labeling images in your exhibition, I think the best approach would be to write the Chinese part this way beside the English name:

 

黄山风景区 （安徽省） Yellow Mountain (Anhui Province) and 泰山风景区 （山东省）Mount Tai (Shandong Province) and so on.

 

That seems to be how both Google and Baidu disambiguate these and other place names. For example, if one just says Taishan, it isn't immediately clear whether it's the scenic mountain area in Shandong or the city of the same name in Guangdong. And if one just says Huangshan, it isn't immediately clear whether you mean the scenic mountain area in Anhui or the nearby town of the same name.

 

I'm honestly not sure whether this is overkill or not. Might be sufficient to just write them as 黄山 （安徽）and 泰山 （山东） respectively since both are so famous. My inclination would be to include "scenic area" 风景区 in the label.

[Sgt_Strider]

Thanks for the response.

 

How about for places like Hong Kong? A quick check on Google and Baidu and I don't see 香港市 being used, but just 香港. The same goes for Beijing and Shanghai. Would you go with 中國北京市 or just 中國北京 to represent Beijing, China?

 

Hong Kong is a bit of a tough one just because it's a SAR and that it doesn't belong to a specific province.

[skylee]

Hong Kong is just 香港. It is not just a city, but a Special Administrative Region of a province-level status.  If you like it long you can use 香港特別行政區. But people rarely say this, and for your purposes it seems unnecessary.

[abcdefg]

Agree with Skylee, 香港 is enough by itself. Would do the same (use short form) for Beijing and Shanghai, because they are more than cities, they are province level cities, and can stand alone without any reasonable chance of confusion.

 

So you have: 香港，北京， 上海。 Chongqing would also qualify for similar treatment in a photo label, and could simply be 重庆。

 

The real test, in my opinion, is whether or not the short form of the place name would likely be ambiguous. If not, shorter is better.

[Sgt_Strider]

Thanks Skylee for the information. I realize 香港 is more than good enough, but I also want to learn here! So to follow the format that I selected earlier, is the short form 中國香港 and the long form is 中國香港特別行政區?

[Sgt_Strider]

abcdefg,

 

I would prefer to name the location in the format that I gave earlier. I don't think there will be any confusion if I just go with Beijing or Shanghai even if I were to type it out in English. In practical terms, no one is going to be confused if I just type out Beijing instead of Beijing, China.

 

I tried to search this up on Baidu and Google, but the information doesn't come very easily. What about for a place like Tokyo? Is it as simple as 日本東京市?

[abcdefg]

I don't know about naming conventions for Japanese cities, but I would think 日本东京 would suffice.

 

As a test, I tried typing 东京市 and 日本东京市 and Baidu search doesn't recognize either of them as Tokyo. It immediately begins offering alternatives.