North American Cities

Mandarin Chinese has a relatively limited stock of phonetics compared with other languages. When it comes to translating Western geographical names into Chinese characters, a close phonetic match is attempted. Consideration must also be given to the meaning of the chosen Chinese characters.

Most geographical names are chosen as phonetic approximations of the Western names, but a few place names are descriptive. San Francisco, for example, is Jiù Jīn Shān, which translates as “Old Gold Mountain,” reminding us of the California gold rush.

Most Mandarin Chinese geographical names sound strange to Western ears. This is because there is usually not an exact phonetic equivalent to the sounds of the English names.

North American Cities

Click on the links to hear the audio.

English Name	Chinese Characters	Pinyin
New York	紐約	niǔ yuē
Boston	波士頓	bō shì dùn
Montreal	蒙特婁	méng tè lóu
Vancouver	溫哥華	wēn gē huá
Toronto	多倫多	duō lún duō
Los Angeles	洛杉磯	luò shān jī
San Francisco	舊金山	jiù jīn shān
Chicago	芝加哥	zhī jiā gē
Seattle	西雅圖	xī yǎ tú
Miami	邁阿密	mài ā mì
Houston	休斯頓	xiū sī dùn
Portland	波特蘭	bō tè lán
Washington	華盛頓	huá shèng dùn
New Orleans	紐奧良	niǔ ào liáng
Philadelphia	費城	fèi chéng
Detroit	底特律	dǐ tè lǜ
Dallas	達拉斯	dá lā sī
Atlanta	亞特蘭大	yà tè lán dà
San Diego	聖地牙哥	shèng dié yá gē
Las Vegas	拉斯維加斯	lā sī wéi jiā sī