区域(qū yù) - area, region, zone in Mandarin

区域 (qū yù) is an area understood as a marked-off zone: the part of a map, a building or a country that has a boundary round it. Signage, planning documents and business reports all lean on it heavily.

It is neutral about size. A no-parking bay, a sales territory and half a continent can all be a 区域, because the word describes the fact of having limits rather than how much ground is inside them. As a modifier it takes 的, so 区域的问题 is a regional problem.

The trap is picking it over 地方 in ordinary speech. 地方 is the everyday word for a place, and 这个地方很好 is what a person says about a nice café. 这个区域很好 sounds like a town planner talking. Keep 区域 for formal or technical contexts, and note 地区, which is close but tends to mean a named region such as 沿海地区.