I have read reports in the papers (including China Daily, Sept 19, page 7) on how the Ministry of Railways changed the English translations of the names of the railway stations from, for instance, Beijing West Railway Station, into Beijingxi Railway Station. I do not think this is a wise decision, for the following reasons:

1. If we should split the name (in pinyin) "bei jing xi zhan" into sense-making groups, it should be "beijing xizhan", not "beijingxi zhan". Therefore, "Beijingxi Railway Station" is not logical;

2. There are no such street names as beijingxi or beijingdong (or -nan or -bei) in Beijing;

3. The pinyin Beijing or English translation of Beijing is the official name of our capital. Terms like Beijingxi or Beijingdong would be a serious disrespect to Beijing.

4. Just think, by this decision, one day there will be such public signs as Nanjingxi Railway Station, or Guangzhoudong Railway Station, or even Shanghainan Bus Terminal. What a mess they would be!

Therefore, I sincerely hope the Ministry of Railways will reconsider this decision.

Chen Lin, a professor

with Beijing Foreign Studies University

Via e-mail

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(China Daily 10/09/2012 page9)