Whether it is in a timeline where Zheng He's Treasure Fleet went all the way to South Africa or just China became resurgent under Sun Yat Tsen, please list down Chinese version of various places around the world.
It is better that these name are not based on translation of "modern" European-based names or ancient ones (such as Chinese name for Roman Empire).

Some I can list down are:
Nanyang--Southeast Asian archipelago
Sanfoqi--Srivijaya
Fusang--Japan (debatable)
Jinshan-- Gold Mountain, San Francisco region

Thanks in advance! :D
 
Woguo(Dwarf country)=Japan
Da Qin(Great Qin)=Roman Empire/East Roman Empire
Da Shi(Great Eat lol)=Arabia/Arab World/Arab Caliphates
Tufan(Tu barbarians)=Tibet
Franks=Portuguese
 
东瀛Dongying--Japan
安南Annan--Vietnam
英吉利Yingjili--England/Britain
拂羅Fuluo--Syria
天方Tianfang---Arabia
天竺Tianzhu--India

Relatively modern:
旧金山Jiujinshan--California
檀香山Tanxiangshan--Hawaii
 
I heard somewhere that San Francicso was called 'Mountain of Gold' or 'Golden Mountain" by the Chinese immigrants in the late 1800's. May be one could re-introduce the name in Chinese media:
金山 (Jin Shan) : Gold Mountain: San Francisco
 
I once read that San Francisco was called "The Golden Mountain" by the Chinese immigrants of the late 1800s. So may be that name could have stuck in Chinese media.

And while we're at it:
金山 Jin Shan (Gold Mountain): San Francisco
天使镇 Tian Shi Chen (Angel city): Los Angeles
南湾 Nan Wan (Southern Bay):San Diego
北入口 Bei Ru Kou (Nortern Inlet) Vancouver
雨湾 Wu Wan (Rainy Bay): Seattle

And of course:
苹果镇 Ping Gou Zhen (apple city): New York
 
This thread is a great idea. As one of countless people who still don't quite "get" Chinese place-naming practices, or how the characters look in practice, this thread is a lifesaver for any Chinese-focused timeline or map. I don't have anything to add, but please more!

What would a geography-based name for the America in general be? Or South Africa? And did the Chinese IOTL name anywhere after its discoverer/the current emperor a la Europeans?
 
I once read that San Francisco was called "The Golden Mountain" by the Chinese immigrants of the late 1800s. So may be that name could have stuck in Chinese media.

And while we're at it:
金山 Jin Shan (Gold Mountain): San Francisco
天使镇 Tian Shi Chen (Angel city): Los Angeles
南湾 Nan Wan (Southern Bay):San Diego
北入口 Bei Ru Kou (Nortern Inlet) Vancouver
雨湾 Wu Wan (Rainy Bay): Seattle

And of course:
苹果镇 Ping Gou Zhen (apple city): New York

Jinshan, yes, but do you have a source for the other ones or did you make them up?
 
map-scan.jpg

I doubt they went to Madagascar and take it that they went to Comoros while it was still Malay/Polynesian. Otherwise it's accurate, they along with proto-malagasy already curved the cape of Good Hope.
 
If the Chinese colonize, they would probably prefer abstract concepts for their important settlements/fortresses, expressing hope for how the place would turn out. Some examples from the fringe of OTL Chinese Empires:

迪化 Dihua [modern Urumqi] - 'To Enlighten (the barbarians)'
歸化 Guihua [modern Hohhot] - 'To Return and Convert (to civilization)'
撫順 Fushun [part of Shenyang] - 'To Pacify Smoothly'

As for middling/minor civilian settlements, one could assume a mix of geographical, transliteration and abstract names:
曹家堡 Caojiabao [Xining district] - 'Cao Clan Fort'
格爾木 Ge'ermu [Golmud, Qinghai] - Tibetan Na-Gor-Mo
遵義 Zunyi [Guizhou city] - 'Respecting Propriety'

And for really local areas (that have the chance to turn into big cities later on with industrialization), you have majority geographical designations, which might obviously be changed to more tasteful names
馬鞍山 Maanshan [Anhui city] - 'Horse Saddle Mountain'
青泥洼 Qingniwa [Dalian] - 'Green Mud Swamp'

As for exonyms, I think the following few points:
- The existence of gold on the American West Coast and in Australia will be factored into names (San Fran was the 'Old Gold Hill' while Melbourne was the 'New Gold Hill', and lots of Chinese were present at the BC Gold rushes).

Perhaps similar nomenclatures for ivory in Africa and spices in Indonesia (though OTL Indonesian exonyms seem primarily limited to navigational features e.g. 巨港 'Large Harbor' [Palembang], 錫江 '"Sek" River [Makassar], and 巴東 'East "Ba"' [Denpasar, Bali])?

- The greater the official Chinese influence, the less likely native transliterations would be used... frontier areas with little official influence could see local transliterations incorporated (like in OTL Taiwan: Keelung from Ketagalan, and of course the various Manchurian names in the NE)

- I would also note that a China with more overseas presence would also be more exposed to Western cartographical and etymological influence. Matteo Ricci's terms for many European countries (Spain, Portugal) as well as for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have survived to this day.
 
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- The greater the official Chinese influence, the less likely native transliterations would be used... frontier areas with little official influence could see local transliterations incorporated (like in OTL Taiwan: Keelung from Ketagalan, and of course the various Manchurian names in the NE)

One point about American Indian languages, which the Chinese would be transliterating from if they were there--they are utterly insane and complex compared to Chinese, and thus very difficult to render in Chinese (compared to, say, Hawaiian). California with its huge diversity of languages would be especially interesting to see what they'd make of it. Use calques? Use bits of the native name? Use the native name even if you have a bunch of places with 5 or 6 or 7 characters in the name (which in China seems very rare)?

Like in China, where many cities underwent numerous name changes over the centuries, I think you'd see that in North America or other places colonised by China.

Regarding Jinshan, since it would become clear in time that the whole area is a "gold mountain" and the Bay Area has no gold, the region could become known as Jinshan instead of it referring to San Francisco. Which might mean the capital would be Jinzhou (金州), not to be confused with other cities named Jinzhou (or it seems a historic prefecture spelled with the same characters)--presumably this would be the capital of the region, which would be somewhere in the Bay Area, assuming the Chinese find it since the Spanish often missed the Bay when sailing down the coast--could be anywhere in Northern California, since the Chinese route would either be the Manila Galleon route or the route taking them around Japan, Kamchatka, and Alaska.

Also, a lot of Chinese geographic names have compass points in their names (ex. Sha(a)nxi), so would you get a name like that for the West Coast? You see the same thing with Korean and Japanese names, which for regions tend to be very abstract while cities and provinces get more descriptive and poetic names. Of course, I love the name "Fusang" being given to the West Coast, probably displacing Japan or anywhere else as the land which Fusang designates.
 
map-scan.jpg

I doubt they went to Madagascar and take it that they went to Comoros while it was still Malay/Polynesian. Otherwise it's accurate, they along with proto-malagasy already curved the cape of Good Hope.

What is the source of that map?
 
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