Placename nomenclature is always complicated, but seldom more complicated than in China. There are at least three romanization systems that one might encounter. For English speakers, Yale is the most intuitive system for pronounciation. Wade-Giles used to be the most common system, and is still seen in many books.On January 1, 1979, the Chinese Government officially adopted the pinyin system for spelling Chinese names and places in Roman letters. Pinyin has now replaced other conventional spellings in China's English-language publications. The U.S. Government has also adopted the pinyin system for all names and places in China. For example, the capital of China is now spelled "Beijing" rather than "Peking."
A system of Romanization invented by the Chinese, pinyin has long been widely used in China on street and commercial signs as well as in elementary Chinese textbooks as an aid in learning Chinese characters. Variations of pinyin are also used as the written forms of several minority languages.
In the pinyin system, letters are pronounced much as they would be in American English with the following exceptions.
Complex initial sounds:
c -- like the t's in it's
q -- like the ch in cheap
x -- like the sh in she
z -- like the ds in lids
zh -- like the j in justFinal Sounds:
e -- Pronounced like "uh"
eng -- like the ung in lung
ai -- as in aisle
ui -- pronounced way
uai -- like the wi in wide
i -- like the i in skin
ua -- like the wa in waft
ao -- like the ow in now
ian -- pronounced yen
ou -- like the ow in know
uan -- pronounced when*When zh, ch, sh, zh are followed by an "i," the "i" is pronounced like an r.