Chinese Postal Map Romanization

Chinese romanization
Mandarin for Standard Chinese     Hanyu Pinyin (ISO standard)     EFEO     Gwoyeu Romatzyh         Spelling conventions     Latinxua Sin Wenz     Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II     Chinese Postal Map Romanization     Tongyong Pinyin     Wade–Giles     Yale     Legge romanization     Simplified Wade     Comparison chart for Sichuanese Mandarin     Sichuanese Pinyin     Scuanxua Ladinxua Xin Wenz
Yue for Cantonese     Guangdong Romanization     Hong Kong Government     Jyutping     Meyer-Wempe     Sidney Lau     S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols)     S. L. Wong (romanisation)     Cantonese Pinyin     Standard Romanization     Yale     Barnett–Chao
Wu for Shanghai and Suzhou dialects     Long-short for Wenzhounese     Wenzhounese romanisation
Min Nan for Taiwanese, Amoy, and related     Pe̍h-ōe-jī     Bbínpīn Hōngàn     Daighi tongiong pingim     Modern Literal Taiwanese     Phofsit Daibuun     Tâi-lô     TLPA for Hainanese     Hainanhua Pinyin Fang'an for Teochew     Peng'im
Min Dong for Fuzhou dialect     Foochow Romanized
Hakka for Moiyan dialect     Kejiahua Pinyin Fang'an For Siyen dialect     Pha̍k-fa-sṳ     TLPA
Gan for Nanchang dialect     Pha̍k-oa-chhi
See also:    General Chinese    Cyrillization    Xiao'erjing    'Phags-pa script    Bopomofo    Taiwanese kana    Romanisation in Singapore    Romanisation in the ROC
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Chinese Postal Map Romanization (traditional Chinese: 郵政式拼音; simplified Chinese: 邮政式拼音; pinyin: Yóuzhèngshì Pīnyīn) was the system of romanization for Chinese place names which came into use in the late Qing dynasty and was officially sanctioned by the Imperial Postal Joint-Session Conference (帝國郵電聯席會議), which was held in Shanghai in the spring of 1906. This system of romanization was retained after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 and since it was in use in the official postal atlas of the Republic of China, it remained the most common way of rendering Chinese place names in the West (for cartographers for example) for a large part of the twentieth century. Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China, its displacement of the ROC in the UN in 1972, and the adoption of Pinyin as the international standard in 1982 by the ISO,^[1] the system has gradually been replaced by pinyin for Han Chinese location names and SASM/GNC romanization for ethnic minority language location names, which is now almost universally accepted.

The system was based on Wade–Giles for postal purposes, especially for placenames in the official postal atlas, letters and stamps. It uses some already common European names of Chinese places that override the Wade-Giles system, and incorporates some dialectal and historical pronunciations.

Main differences with Wade-Giles include:

• Complete lack of diacritic and accent marks.
• Chi, ch'i, and hsi (pinyin ji, qi, and xi) are represented as either tsi, tsi, and si or ki, ki, and hi depending on historic pronunciation, e.g.,
  • Changkiang (Ch'ang-chiang, Changjiang)
  • Chungking (Ch'ung-ch'ing, Chongqing)
  • Peking (Pei-ching, Beijing)
  • Tientsin (T'ien-chin, Tianjin)
  • Tsinan (Chi-nan, Jinan)
• Unless it is the sole vowel in the syllable, the Wade-Giles u becomes w, e.g.,
  • Ankwo (An-kuo, Anguo)
  • Kinchow/Chinchow (Chin-chou, Jinzhou)
• Guangdong (Kwangtung), Guangxi (Kwangsi), and Fujian (Fukien) placenames are to be Romanized from the local dialects, such as Hakka, Cantonese, and Min (systems also obtained from Giles' A Chinese-English Dictionary).
  • Amoy (Hsia-men, Xiamen)
  • Swatow (Shan-t'ou, Shantou)
  • Quemoy (Chin-men, Jinmen)
• Popular pre-existing (from 19th century or earlier) European names for places in China are to be retained, such as those of the treaty ports.
  • Canton (Kuang-chou, Guangzhou)

Other orthographic peculiarities include:

• hs- becomes sh- or -s, e.g., Kishien (from Chi-hsien)
• -ê (schwa) and -ei both become -eh, e.g., Chengteh (from Ch'eng-te) and Pehkiao (from Pei-ch'iao). -ê occasionally also can be -e or -ei.
• final u sometimes become -uh, e.g., Wensuh (from Wen-su)

See also

• Postage stamps and postal history of China

References

• China postal album: showing the postal establishments and postal routes in each province. 2d ed. Peking: Directorate General of Posts, 1919.
• Playfair, G. M. H. The Cities and Towns of China: A Geographical Dictionary. 2d. ed. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh Ltd., 1910.
• "Yóuzhèng shì pīnyīn" (邮政式拼音) Zhōngguó dà bǎikē quánshū: Yuyán wénzì (中国大百科全书：语言文字). Beijing: Zhōngguó dà bǎikē quánshū chūbǎnshè (中国大百科全书出版社), 1998.

1. ^ "ISO 7098:1982 – Documentation – Romanization of Chinese". Retrieved 2009-03-01.