Illegally-named road sparks debate after map applications 'approve' it

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Installing a road sign with one’s own name seems like a fun, harmless thing to do, but a fresh graduate might have to dismantle a street sign in Beijing he set up in jest three years ago.

The graduate’s name, Ge Yulu, can be taken to mean Geyu Road (Lu means "road" in Chinese), and that was on the sign he put up on along a small stretch of road.

His work had only recently gone viral on social media since Monday.

User @Reenee on Zhihu, a Chinese Q&A website similar to Quora, mentioned the road to illustrate how ordinary people can name roads after their own names in the country’s capital.

The user also said the road name showed up in navigation software programs like Baidu, Google and AutoNavi.

Screenshot via Baidu map

Screenshot via Google map

Screenshot via AutoNavi map

Located in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, people can walk along Geyu Road within 10 minutes. Two signs written with the road name can be seen at both ends.

Screenshot

27-year-old Ge is a designer who just graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), China’s prestigious art college.

This is not his first street art. He told CAFA he had put up similar "Geyu Road" signs around his undergraduate college in central China’s Hubei Province prior.

Screenshot

The signs have been around for three years, and some residents have even taken to calling it Geyu Road even though they had no idea how the name came about, a property staff told Beijing Youth Daily.

Some Zhihu users thought it was an interesting way to name a road, while others doubted the legitimacy of this unusual act.

Ge Yulu's final year project /Input Words

A sub-district officer told Beijing Youth Daily the road does not have an official name yet. The officer also said approval needs to be sought before putting up a road sign.

According to an officer from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning, people cannot privately nominate a road, and road names recorded and acknowledged by map services do not represent an authority recognition.

According to regulations, individuals who arbitrarily name, rename or use improper names are liable to receive a violation notice, and are urged to correct the mistake within a limited time.

Failure to do so may lead to more serious consequences.

Photo via CAFA.com.cn.

Since the name is considered as illegal, why have map applications recorded it?

An employee from a navigation software company who did not want to be named told Beijing Youth Daily that it might have passed due to lack of examination, since staff could have seen road sign and then assumed it as official.

Screenshot

Ge said he was quite impressed and perturbed that his work had gone viral online.

“Initially, I designed the sign as an art piece, and I never wondered about its practicality," said Ge. "Now I realized it may impact the cityscape and is not in accord with related regulations.”