Chinese Town Name Generator

Chinese towns and villages are named differently from cities. Where a city gets a dignified two-character name, a town is usually named after the thing that was there first: a bridge (Shiqiao, stone bridge), a ferry (Baimadu, white horse ferry), a temple (Guandimiao), a kiln, a salt pan or a market. The largest group is the clan village: a surname plus jia (family) plus a landform, giving Liujiaqiao, Wangjiazhuang and Sunjiatun, which read as 'the Lius' bridge', 'the Wangs' farmstead' and 'the Suns' settlement'.

Distance names mark old post roads: Shilipu (ten-li inn), Wulidun (five-li mound) and Ershilipu sit exactly that far from the county seat. Market suffixes tell you the region, since ji is a northern periodic market, xu a southern one and dian, pu or bu an inn or landing. Other endings add regional flavour: -zi in the Northeast (Dadianzi), -cuo in Fujian (Lincuo), -wei and -keng in Hakka Guangdong (Shangwei, Shikeng), -zhai in the southwest (Miaozhai) and -ying or -tun where Ming and Qing garrisons once farmed. Names like Hongqi, Tuanjie and Dongfeng date from the 1950s and 60s.

Each pinyin entry shows its simplified characters; the suffix zhen (town), xiang (township) or cun (village) follows the name on signs. The English entries are literal translations for fantasy maps or fiction for readers who do not speak Chinese.