China (CHN)

This section defines the supported geocoding datasets, operations, and input and output field information for China.

Supported Geocoding Datasets

The following table lists the supported geocoding dataset(s) with the available geocoding levels for China.

Note: Custom User Dictionaries are not supported.
Geocoding Dataset City Centroid Suburb/Village Centroid Postal Centroid Street Centroid Interpolated Street Address Point-level Address Point of Interest
Pitney Bowes, simplified Chinese, English language Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No

Supported Operations

The following operations are supported for China:
  • Geocoding—Takes one or more addresses as input and returns latitude/longitude coordinates and other information.
  • Reverse Geocoding—Takes one or more latitude and longitude coordinates as input and returns the address of the location.
  • Interactive Geocoding— Returns potential match candidates as the adddress is typed in.
  • Global Key Lookup—Returns geocode candidates when given a unique key as input. USA MLD and AUS GNAF data only.

Input Fields

The input address may contain some or all of the following address elements.

Parameter Type Description
placeName String Specifies the building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the input address. Optional.
mainAddress String Single Line Input—If no other address field is populated, then the mainAddress entry will be treated as a single line input. Single line input can consist of multiple input address fields ; these should be entered in the typical address order for the country. For more details, refer to the section "Single Line Input" below.

Street Address—If the post address components (city, postalCode, etc.) are provided separately or in the lastLine field, then the contents of mainAddress will be treated as the street address part and can include company name, house number, building names and street names. Optional.

Street Intersection Input—To enter an intersection, specify the two street names separated by a double ampersand (&&).
lastLine String The last line of the address. Optional. For example:

50 Liang Maqiao Road
Beijing 100016
areaName1 String Specifies the province. Optional.
areaName2 String Not used.
areaName3 String Specifies the city or town.
areaName4 String Specifies the locality. Optional.
postalCode String China has a six-digit postcode system. The first two digits indicate the province. The third digit and fourth digits indicate the district and city/town. The final two digits represent the postal delivery zone or prominent location. Larger provinces or cities might be assigned more than one block of codes. For example, Guangdong Province is assigned 51 and 52 as the first two digits.
Note: For China, postal centroid geocoding as well as the use of the Fallback to Postcode option require the complete six-digit postcode. However, when a postal code is provided as part of an address for street geocoding, only four-digit postal codes are returned.
country String The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For China, the country code is CHN. Required for forward geocoding.

Address Guidelines for China

Follow these suggestions to ensure that your input address data is in the best format possible for optimum matching and geocoding. For additional information about the Chinese postal system, see the China Post website: www.chinapost.cn.

  • Required fields—Addresses must contain either a city or a postal code.
  • Abbreviations in addresses—The geocoder recognizes common words, directionals, house number indicators, and abbreviations used in addresses and can geocode these addresses successfully.
  • Numbers, Numeric Equivalents, and Ordinals—Numbered streets are mapped to the named equivalents. Ordinals are also recognized in input addresses.

Single Line Input

Instead of entering each address component in separate fields, you can enter the entire address in the mainAddress input field with the address elements ordered as follows:

[address_number][street_info][area_name_4][area_name_3][post_code]

Where:
  • [address_number] is optional.
  • [street_info] consists of the street name, street type and any unit type, unit value or pre- or post-directional information (for example, East, West, etc.).
  • [area_name_4] is the locality.
  • [area_name_3] is the city or town.
  • [postal_code] is the postal code.

For best results, put a comma between street information and the lastline (for example, city and postal) information.

Custom Options

There are no options specific to China.

Output Fields

The following table lists the address fields returned for a candidate located in China.

Note: The placeName, addressNumber, unitType and unitValue field values are only returned when a geocoding dataset that supports street address interpolation is installed.
Field Name Description
mainAddressLine The street address which may include company name, house number, building names and street names.
addressLastLine The last line of the address.
placeName The building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the address.
areaName1 The province.
areaName2 Not used.
areaName3 The city or town.
areaName4 The locality.
postCode1 The six-digit postal code.
postCode2 Not used.
country The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For China, the country code is CHN.
addressNumber The address number.
streetName The street or road name.
unitType The unit type such as APT, STE, etc.
unitValue The unit value/number, such as "3B".
customFields China does not have any custom output fields.