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China Bans Using Foreign Languages for Place Names
China will forbid the use of foreign languages in place name signs and will set up united-standard place name signs in all its cities, according to sources with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Jin Ergang, director of zoning and place names under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that this is to promote the application of the phonetic annotation of Chinese characters, which is legalized internationally as the only standard annotation for place names in China.
According to Jin, the related departments have issued a joint circular banning the incorrect spelling of place names so as to avoid confusion.
With the rapid expansion of cities in China, the inconsistent spelling of place name signs in recent years has caused many complaints among both residents and tourists.
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