 Less commonly used is the pinyin transcription of 澳門 "Aòmén", but its usage is not used officially.The decision not to adopt pinyin names after the handover to China appears to be consistent with the usual PRC policy of respecting the local linguistic traditions in the romanized version of names, as in other non-pinyin names like Lhasa, Ürümqi or Hohhot, for example.Phonetically the spelling "Macao" produces a pinyin pronunciation similar to 馬交 Mǎjiāo which explains the preference for this spelling among Mandarin speakers.