During the process of rural revitalization, the issues of "unnamed locations" and "unmarked names" were once prominent pain points—unnamed roads led to failed navigation, vague addresses clogged delivery channels, and the lack of distinctive regional identifiers made it difficult for local specialties to penetrate the market. The difficulties of "finding the way," "receiving deliveries," and "weak industries" show how small place names directly impact villagers' lives and rural development. To address these challenges, the Ministry of Civil Affairs launched the "Rural Place Naming Initiative" in May 2023. By the end of 2025, a cumulative total of 927,000 rural place names had been named or renamed nationwide, over 32 million place name signs and house number plates had been installed, over 12 million place names and points of interest had been standardized and annotated, and navigation usage exceeded 10 billion person-times.
Recently, Chen Taixi, who works away from home for long periods, drove back to his hometown and noticed a significant difference. Previously, he could only navigate to the village committee and then rely on memory to reach his old home nearby; now, he can directly set his navigation to "No. 8 Wanghuai Road, Chewang Village, Yijing Town, Changfeng County, Hefei City, Anhui Province." The navigation system also labels every cement road within the village, with shops and restaurants along the way clearly visible. "The village carried out the 'Rural Place Naming Initiative,' and the village cadres said the road in front of my house was named Wanghuai Road," Chen Taixi said happily, speaking about the changes in his hometown.
"Before the roads had names, villagers used the old locust tree in the village for orientation, saying it was a certain number of meters in a certain direction from the old locust tree," said Yan Taixin, Secretary of the Chewang Village Party Branch. However, landmarks only provided approximate locations, often leading to situations where the exact address couldn't be found. "When outsiders came to the village, if they weren't familiar with the area, they had to ask for directions as soon as they entered the village," Yan Taixin said, adding that the rows of similar-looking houses made finding the destination even harder.
Starting in February 2024, Changfeng County progressively rolled out the "Rural Place Naming Initiative" across the entire county, standardizing the names for 482 roads and residential areas, while also installing 793 digital road signs and 27,482 digital house number plates. Xinghuai Road, Wanghuai Road, Fenghuangqiao Road... all seven main roads in Chewang Village now have names rich in local culture. "When naming them, we organized veteran Party members and retired teachers from the village, and everyone agreed to name the roads after historical sites like the ancient locust tree and Phoenix Bridge in the village," Yan Taixin explained.
"Naming the roads is also an exploration of rural culture. We utilized resources like local history, culture, and traditional customs during the naming process, helping people remember their hometown roots through the road names," said Zhen Ning, Director of the Social Affairs Service Center of the Changfeng County Civil Affairs Bureau. After standardizing the place names, the more critical step was "data collection and mapping." In May 2019, the Ministry of Civil Affairs established and launched the National Place Name Information Database as an authoritative platform for publishing standard place names. Changfeng County followed the principle of "whoever approves, whoever files" to standardize, file, announce, and upload standard place names into the database.
Simultaneously, cadres and residents were mobilized to use the mini-program for the "Rural Place Naming Initiative" released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs to collect and map information for 1,434 roads and various points of interest. One by one, road names and points of interest beneficial to agriculture and farmers were "lit up" on Baidu, AutoNavi, and Tencent maps, greatly facilitating travel and navigation in rural areas. Following the mapping of place names, significant convenience ensued—door-to-door deliveries became possible, taxis could stop right at the doorstep, and the service efficiency of grassroots cadres improved.
Now, road signs are erected at intersections and both ends of every main road in Chewang Village. These signs feature QR codes that, when scanned, reveal the origin of the road's name. Ecological farmsteads, planting bases, reservoirs, ponds, bridges, and water conservancy facilities are also clearly marked. "All this information is incorporated into the navigation systems, not only making travel easier for everyone but also enabling more precise emergency response and public services, thereby clarifying the foundational map for rural governance," Zhen Ning said.
"Beep—new order received!" On January 11, inside the express delivery sorting center in Sanjiang Town, Meilan District, Haikou City, Hainan Province, the sorting lines operated at full capacity. Zhang Lin, a delivery driver for China Post, was adeptly scanning packages and loading those labeled for "Qiebian Village" and "Qienan Village" onto his vehicle. "Two years ago, seeing packages for these villages gave me a headache," Zhang Lin remarked. Previously, with many village roads unnamed, delivery slips only had vague addresses like "next to the small shop" or "at the big intersection."
Upon reaching the village entrance, he had to call for confirmation. Encountering poor signal or unclear descriptions could waste half an hour on a single delivery. Now, Zhang Lin simply enters the road name into his phone's navigation app to pinpoint the exact household. This transformation stems from the "Rural Place Naming Initiative" promoted in Meilan District. For a long time, the issues of "unnamed locations" and "unmarked names" in the countryside were a major obstacle for express logistics entering villages.
To overcome the "last mile" challenge, starting in 2024, the Meilan District Civil Affairs Bureau, in collaboration with multiple departments, initiated a project to standardize and digitize rural place names. In areas like Sanjiang Town and Yanfeng Town, civil affairs staff worked with professional surveying teams to conduct on-site surveys of every village road and industrial route, naming them in consultation with villagers' opinions. "The road from Fubao Village to the wax apple base is called 'Fumin Road,' and the road in Yanhai Village connecting to the oyster wharf is called 'Dukou Road.' The naming is both standardized and reflective of local industry characteristics," explained Liu Xiaoxia, Deputy Director of the Meilan District Civil Affairs Bureau.
A crucial step was "cloud integration and interoperability." Meilan District conducted spatial data collection for the 227 newly named rural roads, inputting place name information, spatial coordinates, and multimedia materials into the National Place Name Information Database. Once in the database, internet map platforms like Baidu and AutoNavi could reference the annotations and positional data for standardized collection and mapping. Furthermore, responding to the "Notice on Strengthening Collaboration between Place Names and Postal Services to Boost Rural Revitalization" jointly issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the State Post Bureau in 2025, Meilan District promoted coordination where postal departments identified "naming needs," and the place name authorities addressed the gaps accordingly, weaving a denser network of place names for rural postal routes.
The district's built "one map" platform for rural place names integrates information from postal logistics, industrial distribution, and leisure routes, enabling logistics vehicles to accurately identify every node. Data connectivity has activated the efficiency of rural logistics. According to statistics, the accessibility rate in Meilan District reached 100% in 2025, and the value premium for regional public brands like "Meilan Fine Products" exceeded 1.6 billion yuan, fostering a win-win production and sales pattern combining "place names + industry."
Yanfeng Town is famous for its oysters. In the past, due to vague addresses, fresh produce logistics companies were hesitant to accept orders, fearing delays and spoilage. Now, at the Ta Shi Village Postal Comprehensive Service Station in Yanfeng Town, the average daily parcel volume has surged from a few dozen pieces several years ago to over 800 pieces. "Last year, sales of seafood and fruit increased significantly. Many repeat customers place orders online, and delivery trucks pick up directly from the stalls. This year, we plan to discuss bulk order cooperation with the service station; business prospects look brighter," an oyster farmer from Yanfeng Town said with a smile.
Leveraging the comprehensive place name signage and guidance system, the local area has created the "Oyster Town" IP. Tourists scanning the information on road signs can learn the stories behind the place names and navigate directly to farmers' restaurants run by oyster farmers.
"Thirtyli Fort apples have a long planting history, the soil is regularly tested to ensure selenium-rich quality, and orders placed now can arrive home in just two or three days!" In the live-streaming room selling apples from Thirtyli Fort Subdistrict, Jinzhou District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, host Jiang Xiaona displayed the fresh fruit while explaining the origin of the place name. "This place is named Thirtyli Fort because it's 30 li from the ancient Jinzhou city. There's also a Ming Dynasty beacon tower nearby. Everyone is welcome to come for fruit picking." Jiang Xiaona, formerly a homemaker, became a spokesperson for her hometown's specialty agricultural products in 2025 after participating in a live-streaming training program for mothers organized by the Jinzhou District Civil Affairs Bureau.
"Seeing specialty products like 'Thirtyli Fort apples' and 'Fuzhou Bay salt-field shrimp' with their place names reach customers nationwide gives me a great sense of achievement," Jiang Xiaona said. In the past, high-quality specialties from Jinzhou District faced the dilemma of having "distinctive features but no brand, having products but no traffic." "The farm has dozens of orchards scattered across various villages, located in remote areas that were unclear on maps. Even delivery drivers had trouble finding the way, let alone setting up e-commerce live streams," recalled Wang Fengnian, Manager of the State-Owned Farm in Thirtyli Fort Subdistrict. Previously, apples were mostly sold to fruit merchants or locally. "People only knew they were Dalian apples, not specifically from Thirtyli Fort."
Jinzhou has a long history and abundant place name resources. "However, in the past, vague addresses for production bases constrained industrial development," said Xu Yang, Director of the District Civil Affairs Bureau. Starting in 2023, Jinzhou District carried out the "Rural Place Naming Initiative," conducting a comprehensive survey to identify gaps in place names, standardizing the collection of over 4,360 pieces of information for roads, residential points, agricultural parks, etc., and collaborating with natural resources departments to build a "digital base map" of the rural space. All orchards, shrimp ponds, and greenhouses across the district now have standard addresses and are equipped with 3D panoramic maps.
"Place names are not just markers; they are cultural name cards. Combined with local products, they can become productive forces," Xu Yang stated. Jinzhou District embedded rural place name information into e-commerce platforms. Director Xu Yang personally took the lead by entering live-streaming rooms, telling stories behind place names to promote sales, effectively "branding" specialties with place names and using specialty sales to "promote" the region's reputation. Subsequently, the District Civil Affairs Bureau trained over 700 mothers to form live-streaming teams, generating an average daily exposure of over 300,000 views for specialty products. In 2025, sales of place-name-branded specialties in Jinzhou District increased by 37% year-on-year.
Digital place names have further driven integrated industrial development. Using place names for tourism guidance, Jinzhou District has "connected scenic spots via roads and revitalized industries through names," linking agricultural tourism bases like the Qidingshan Cherry Orchard and the Thirtyli Fort Apple Orchard to form distinctive rural tourism corridors, which have become important engines for rural revitalization. "We used to worry about sales when the apples ripened. Now, online sales account for over half of the total production, with prices about 10% higher than wholesale prices. Plus, tourists come specifically for picking, and the fruit farmers are truly benefiting," Wang Fengnian said.
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