Hangul Syllable Ryen

Read it as one sound unit, not a complete word. Alone, 롄 (ryen) names no person, feeling or thing; the surrounding Korean word supplies the meaning. Its block joins initial ᄅ, vowel ᅨ and final ᆫ, usually shown as ㄹ + ㅖ + ㄴ jamo.

Hangul itself supplies the history: the Korean script was recorded as created in 1443, and its purpose and principles were set out in 1446. It was designed for Korean speech because Chinese-character writing and earlier adaptations such as Idu, Gugyeol and Hyangchal were hard for many people to use.

Why does 롄 appear in Chinese place names?

It carries a Chinese sound inside Korean spelling. In the documented name 롄윈강, 롄 writes the Mandarin syllable Lián; it is a sound choice, not a translation of the character 連/连.

So treat 롄 in a Korean place name as transliteration first. Its link to 連/连 runs through that naming tradition, not because 롄 is a Chinese character.

How do I type 롄?

Use a Korean IME and enter ㄹ, ㅖ, then ㄴ. On a QWERTY keyboard that is F, then Shift-P, then S. If Latin letters appear, switch the input language first.

Stored text can differ while the display stays the same: one form favors the precomposed syllable and the other exposes its jamo sequence. Software handling Korean text should normalize before treating those forms as different.