On July 24, Nanjing, the capital city of six dynasties in ancient China, restored 23 historical names of ancient streets, residential districts, villages, and bridges. In the next few days, Nanjing will carry on a series of campaigns to survey and document names of historical places and unveil an official regulation to manage the naming of places in the city.

Each historical name has a unique back story. For instance, Jiangcheng was a small county at today's Mt. Qixia Scenic Area on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Its name, which means "crossing the river," can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.). According to historical records, it was here that Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, crossed the Yangtze River by boat during his inspection tour of eastern China.

As is Nanjing, place names factor into Beijing's local culture. Some places were named after ancient commercial centers. For example, Deng Shi Kou refers to the old lantern market; Cai Shi Kou refers to the vegetable market; Hua Shi refers to the flower market; and Mi Shi refers to the rice market.

There are places named after government institutions. For example, Jiao Chang Kou refers to places where soldiers were trained; Lu Mi Cang refers to the storehouse holding food for officials. There are also some places that used to be the burial sites of royal families, such as Ba Wang Fen, which refers to eight princes' graves and, Gong Zhu Fen which refers to the princess' grave.

However, in the past 15 years, some of the names have begun disappearing. In Nanjing, more than 180 historical names for streets, roads and bridges have disappeared.

As the city planners keep auctioning the naming right of the roads, streets and bridges, more historical names are being replaced by business brands. What's more, some symbolic historical buildings have also been bulldozed.

Shu Yi, curator of the Modern Literature Museum of Art and son of the late literary master Lao She, strongly objected to the re-naming. He once stated that historical names were a form of grass-roots culture and the closer they were tied to the local culture, the easier they were to remember.

But if historical names are kept in achieves, their glamour will be reduced or even disappear. So. the best way to keep them alive is to imbed them into people's daily life. Nanjing undoubtedly has taken a lead in the protection of the historical names, which deserves our lavish applauds.