Mandarin Chinese for
San Francisco. Literally, it's "old
Gold Mountain." This
romantic name came from the days of the
Gold Rush, when
men came from
China to try to make a
fortune or at least a
living in
California.
Some men did become
rich and returned
triumphantly to their
homeland or decided to set up a life in
America; unfortunately this was often a less than
golden fate because of harsh
immigration laws that did not allow their
families to join them.
Laurence Yep's
young adult historical fiction novel,
Gold Mountain, deals with this
theme.
Older Chinese names for foreign
places tended to have
meaning, such as this one, while later there was more of an attempt to duplicate the
phonetic aspect instead.