Place names cannot be changed at will

THE STATE COUNCIL, China's Cabinet, said on Monday it will correct the practice of local governments that change place names at will. Place names are derived from history and local officials have no power to change them according to their whims, says a comment on Beijing Youth Daily:

Data show that over 60,000 towns and 400,000 villages have had their names changed in the past 30 years. Causes vary, yet many of them have commercial interests behind or were done at the will of local officials.

For example, Luoma Lake in Suqian city, Central China's Jiangsu province was renamed "Mashang Lake" by a developer in 2010 because Luoma's homophonic means officials falling off from their posts, and the developer hoped a new name could attract officials. The deed was soon corrected after media coverage, but it shows the distorted mentality of some officials.