Beautiful Country Birthday

The USA is usually called Měiguó in Mandarin Chinese. The two characters are 美國/美国, which can be literally translated as "beautiful" (měi 美) "country" (guó 國/国).

But Měiguó is actually a short form for the full, formal name of Měi lì jiān Hé zhòng guó (美利堅合眾國/美利坚合众国), which is a transliteration of "United States of America".

So even though the original intention was not "beautiful country", that is the idea that sticks in popular thought.

Happy Birthday, Beautiful Country!