A river, a mountain, or a city – its name is often a vivid product of the encounter between language and geography. Take the Wuyu'er River beside me, for example. In the Jurchen language of the Jin and Yuan dynasties, it meant "low-lying wetland". Today, Yi'an, which lies on its banks, boasts an even more renowned geographical marker that also serves as the unique foundation for its development: the 47th parallel north.
