Russian is notoriously intolerant of repeating words within a sentence or in adjacent sentences. As a result, elaborate circumlocutions are used to say the same thing. A specific case is metaphors that refer to countries. As always, I will link to sources for words in languages I don’t know. All usage examples come from the Russian National Corpus.

Japan

Япония – страна восходящего солнца (literally, “country of the rising sun”)

The two characters that make up the word “Japan” in Japanese (日本) are “sun” and “origin,” hence the literal translation as “land of the rising sun.” This name is thought to have been used in correspondence with China; it refers to Japan’s easterly position relative to China.

Example:

Страна восходящего солнца начала борьбу с дефицитом бюджета и госдолгом, который превышает 200% ВВП.
The Land of the Rising Sun has started a struggle against the budget deficit and national debt, which exceeds 200 percent of the GDP.

China

Китай – Поднебесная (“under the heaven”)

The Chinese word tianxia/тянься (天下) has traditionally signified the entire world or all the lands nominally belonging to the Chinese emperor. According to Russian Wikpedia, nowadays this term in China refers to the world, but in Russia it still means China.

Example:

Большинство прибывающих из Поднебесной бизнесменов прекрасно говорят по-русски, хорошо у нас ориентируются.
Most businesspeople arriving from China speak Russian fluently and know their way around here.

Israel

Израиль – земля обетованная (“the promised land”)

Israel is often referred to as the promised land/ земля обетованная (הארץ המובטחת) based on a Biblical/Torah passage where God promised the land of Israel to Abraham and his descendants. I am purposely staying away from the State of Israel and Palestine; the article I linked to has a good overview of how the concept of a “promised land” is used by various parties. In addition to this original sense, this expression is used metaphorically for any long-awaited destination.

Example:

Туроператоры ожидают, что уже через месяц поток российских туристов на Землю обетованную снова станет полнокровным.
Travel-agents expect the flow of Russian tourists to the Promised Land to go back to normal (literally, “to be full-bloodied again”) in as soon as a month.

There are a few other examples, like England — or the UK, although many Russians use the two interchangeably — being called “туманный Альбион” (the foggy Albion). Can you think of any in Russian or in your language?