The Chinese word **迪拜** (*Dí bài*) is a phonetic transliteration formed to approximate the sound of the foreign place name "Dubai." It is created using two characters chosen not for their meanings (迪 can imply "enlightenment" or "to guide," and 拜 means "to worship" or "to visit"), but primarily for their pronunciation in Mandarin, which together closely mimic the syllables "Du-bai." This is a standard method in Chinese for representing foreign proper nouns, especially place names, where the original meaning is discarded in favor of sound-based matching.