What's up with Chinese place names? When I was a kid looking at a map of China, it showed the capital as 'Peking(Peiping)'. Now it's Beijing, and there are other places like Guangzhou that used to have a name I recognized. I first noticed this in the late 80's and with people I knew who had gone there, but now it's ubiquitous. My question is not about why or if China changed the name, but why did the US usage change. Why just China? (we don't say Lisboa, Firenze, München, Moskva, etc.) [more inside]
posted on May 2, 2007 - 34 answers