The Chinese word 里昂 (Lǐ'áng) is a phonetic transliteration formed to approximate the pronunciation of the French city name "Lyon". It follows the common Chinese practice of representing foreign proper nouns by selecting existing characters whose combined sounds mimic the original name as closely as possible, with little to no regard for the literal meanings of the individual characters (里 meaning "inside" or "mile" and 昂 meaning "to raise" or "lofty"). This method, known as transliteration or loanword adaptation, has been used historically to incorporate foreign names into the Chinese lexicon, with this specific form likely solidified through early 20th-century geographic and diplomatic standardization.