Translating a non-Chinese toponym into a Chinese exonym is a complex task, given the high number of homophones in Chinese, the existence of multiple conventions for translation, and differences in the phonetic systems between the source language and Chinese.^[1]

This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2017)

Generally, Chinese exonyms fall into three categories:

• Phonetic transcriptions, for similarity of sound without regard for the meaning of the Chinese characters.^[2] For example, London is translated to 伦敦 (Lúndūn), but the individual characters 伦 (lún, order) and 敦 (dūn, kindhearted) are only used for their sounds, not their meanings.
• Literal translations, where the underlying meaning of the name is directly translated into Chinese characters.^[2] For example, Salt Lake City is translated to 盐湖城 (Yánhú Chéng), with the individual characters being 盐 (yán, salt) 湖 (hú, lake) 城 (chéng, city).
• For certain countries who use, or historically used, Chinese characters, the Chinese exonyms is simply the Chinese reading of the characters of that place's native name, which may be substantially different from the native readings of those characters.^[3] For instance, Tokyo is written as 東京 in Kanji and pronounced Tōkyō, but in Mandarin Chinese this is pronounced Dōngjīng. The meanings of the characters 東 (eastern) and 京 (capital) are preserved after the translation.^[2]

There are other exonyms that are a combination of translation and transcription (meaning and sound) of the endonym. For example, Hamburg is written as 汉堡 (Hànbǎo), in which the second character 堡 (bǎo, fort, castle), is a translation of the German "burg", (fortress, castle); and the first character 汉 (Hàn) is a transcription of "Ham".^[2]

Names of foreign nations are sometimes shortened to their first character when used in compounds. For example, the name for Russia in Chinese is 俄罗斯 (Éluósī), but the name of the Russian language is 俄语 (Éyǔ), anything Russian-style is 俄式 (Éshì), and the Russian military is 俄军 (Éjūn).

Historically, neighboring states and peoples of China were often given exonyms or descriptions that were pejorative in nature. For instance, the first exonym for Japan from the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 24 CE) was the Chinese Wo or Japanese Wa 倭 meaning "submissive; dwarf barbarian"; this was replaced by the endonym 日本 (rìběn) by the 8th century.^[4]

Many other historical exonyms took centuries to settle into common acceptance. In his A Short Account of the Maritime Circuit, Geographer Xu Jiyu (1795–1873) commented that when translating a foreign place name into Chinese "ten people will have ten different translations, and one person's translation will vary."^[5] This was due to, among other problems, the high number of homophones in Chinese.^[1]

Early Chinese exonyms for the Netherlands in the 17th century included 红毛番 (Hóngmáofān, Red-haired foreigners), and 红夷 (Hóngyí, Red Easterners or Red barbarians),^[6] before it was changed in 1794 to the modern phonetic transcription 荷兰 (Hélán, lit. "lotus orchid") by the Qianlong Emperor via imperial decree.^[7]

Some Chinese exonyms which are not obviously translations or transcriptions exist due to historical significance to Chinese speakers. For example, the names 旧金山 (Jiùjīnshān, lit. "Old Gold Mountain") and 新金山 (Xīnjīnshān, lit. "New Gold Mountain") for San Francisco and Melbourne were given by Chinese migrants in the Californian and Victorian gold rushes in the 19th century.^[8]

Countries had been founded or had gained independence after 1949 (the year Kuomintang had exiled to Taiwan after losing to the Communist Party) often have different exonyms used in mainland China (PRC) and Taiwan (ROC) due to differences in official standards resulting from the split in government.^[1] For example, the mainland Chinese exonym for Vientaine is 万象 (Wànxiàng),^[9] while the Taiwanese exonym is 永珍 (Yǒngzhēn).^[10]

The exonyms below are all in Mandarin Chinese. Exonyms used in mainland China are written in simplified Chinese on this page, and exonyms used in Taiwan are written in traditional Chinese. The exception to this are exonyms for Japanese and Korean place names, which are written in traditional Chinese.