Abstract With the reform of the administrative system and the adjustment of administrative regions, the number and names of China's administrative regions at all levels have changed a lot. In this paper, the result of statistical analysis of data from 1978-2007 shows that the characters of the name changes of China's administrative regions above the county level from the implementation of reform and opening-up policy changed in large quantity. According to the data, the names of 85.71% of the administrative regions above county level in 2007 were changed between 1978 and 2007; the change of generic terms accounts for 83.33%; the change of specific terms accounts for 16.67%. The largest number of generic term change is the "city" and "district". The number of "city" as Generic term increased by 339.4% compared to that of 1978, in which the number of county-level city increased by 287.4%, the number of prefecture-level city increased by 197.9%, and the number of generic term change of municipalities was only one. District as generic term increased by 90.65% compared to that of 1978. At the same time, the number of "region" as generic term reduced 89% and the number of "county" as generic term reduced 24.1%. 43% name changes occurred in eastern China, 34% in mid China and 23% in western China. The change of specific name appeared the character that the scenic areas replaced the original names and the historical names were restored. The main problem of the changes in generic term is that some cities are unworthy of the name. The population of cities in China accounted for 94.5% according to the data of 2006 while the level of urbanization in China in 2006 was only 43.90. That shows a seriously mendacious urban phenomenon. The conclusion is that the true faces of the cities should be rehabilitated and sub-rule principles of urban and rural areas should be implemented. The specific terms in administrative regions shall be worthy their names. The protection of cultural heritage should be strengthened. The strategies and suggestions that the system of the change in geographical names above the county level provide the scientific and standardized reference for the future of the change in the name of regions in China.
2010, Vol. 25 
