The story
- Chinese · borrowed from中南海“Central South Sea”
- English todayZhongnanhai
The atonal Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 中南海 (Zhōngnánhǎi, “Central South Sea”), a compound of the names 中海 (zhōnghǎi, “Central Sea”) + 南海 (Nánhǎi, “South Sea; Nanhai”), two lakes in central Beijing just west of the Forbidden City.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.