BEIJING -- More than 30,000 old rural place names have been added to China's protection lists since a rural geographic naming project was launched last year, a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) said Monday.

Tang Chengpei, vice-minister of civil affairs, said at a press conference that the project, which collects rural place names and inputs them into maps, aimed to improve geographic naming and cultural protection in rural areas.

As of August this year, the government had standardized the naming of 430,000 locations, installed 330,000 place name signs, and placed 14.42 million building and door plaques in rural areas under the project, Tang said.

He added that as the project was promoted, more nameless rural places and places with multiple names had obtained their own standardized names.

The government has also provided guides for online map services to present correct and consistent rural place names, which has facilitated backpacking and road trips in rural areas as well as the delivery of both parcels into villages and rural goods to urban areas, Tang said.

Benefiting from the naming project, many places have created a range of geographic brands of agricultural products, and rural place naming has been integrated with the development of rural e-commerce and agricultural tourism, he added.

The MCA announced the launch of the rural place naming project as a measure to advance rural revitalization in May 2023.