Having been a long-standing scholar of CJK, perhaps I can shed a little light
on this issue.
Actually, this habit of writing "distinguished" temple names, and names of
reverence was first adopter in China at least a thousand or more years ago.
Temple names, names of gates, and other exceptional or revered places are
always written in reverse, to some how distinguish them. But it is not at all
consistent in it use. Everyone seems to understand that if the name of an old
and historic building is written backward, it marks it as being of historical
significance. Yet in writing a description of the place the name will appear
lettered LTR. I believe, with out much to back it up, that this is merely a
convention applied to the names of historically significant buildings and
possibly landmarks.

Bill Kirtz

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Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2003 17:41:02 -0400
From: Nicholas Bodley <nbodley@...>
Subject: A couple of minor items about directionality

At best, I'm only a casual dilettante concerning CJK; I can recognize some
common radicals, but can spot fake CJK from hundreds of yards/meters away
.:)
Nevertheless, I was astonished to see the name of a local Chinese
restaurant
(Beijing Star, iirc) rendered horizontally RtoL. Just one more stage in casual
self-education...