The Chinese word 奥克兰 (Àokèlán) is a phonetic transliteration formed to approximate the sound of the English place name "Auckland." It is constructed using individual Chinese characters chosen not for their literal meanings but for their phonetic value: 奥 (Ào) for the "Au" sound, 克 (kè) for the "ck" syllable, and 兰 (lán) for "land." This follows the standard Chinese practice of rendering foreign proper nouns, where characters with neutral or positive connotations are selected to create a pronounceable and culturally acceptable equivalent in Mandarin.