Letters and Blogs

A costly proposal

An idea has been circulating to change the name of Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, to "Zhengding," because the word "zhuang" means village in Mandarin and Zhengding is an ancient town with considerable fame in China. Supporters of the change contend that the proposed name of Hebei's capital would make it appear more elegant.

In recent years, several cities and towns have undergone name changes aiming to raise their popularity. There have been a few successful cases: Guanxian, Sichuan province was renamed "Dujiangyan;" Chong'an, Fujian province has changed its name to "Wuyishan;" and Zhongdian, Yunnan province was renamed "Shangri-la." The incidents have created some envy among many cities looking to follow suit.