Chinese units of measurement

How do you convert jin to kg?

Halve it: 1 斤 (jīn) is exactly 500 grams, so 100 斤 is 50 kg and 120 斤 is 60 kg. Markets in China price fruit, vegetables and meat by the 斤, and people give their own weight in 斤 too: 我一百二十斤 (wǒ yìbǎi èrshí jīn) means I weigh 60 kg. In Hong Kong the catty is about 605 g and in Taiwan 600 g.

What are the traditional Chinese units of measurement?

The market system, 市制 (shìzhì), fixed to the metric system in 1929: weight in 斤 (jīn) and 两 (liǎng), length in 里 (lǐ), 丈 (zhàng), 尺 (chǐ) and 寸 (cùn), and land in 亩 (mǔ). Since 1990 China officially uses the metric system, 公制 (gōngzhì), but 斤 and 两 are still used in every market and 亩 on every farm.

What is a li in Chinese?

里 (lǐ) is half a kilometre, 500 metres. It is in the Chinese name of the Great Wall, 万里长城 (Wànlǐ Chángchéng), the wall ten thousand li long, and in the saying 千里之行，始于足下, a journey of a thousand li begins with a single step. A kilometre is 公里 (gōnglǐ).

What is a mu of land?

亩 (mǔ) is the unit of farmland: 666⅔ square metres, so 15 亩 make a hectare, 公顷 (gōngqǐng), and 6 亩 are about an acre and a half. Flats and houses are measured in square metres, 平方米 (píngfāngmǐ), or just 平 (píng) for short.

What does 半斤八两 mean?

Six of one and half a dozen of the other. Until 1959 a 斤 had 16 两, so half a 斤, 半斤 (bàn jīn), was 8 两 (bā liǎng): the same weight under two names. Today a 斤 has 10 两, but the saying stays.

How do you say kilogram and metre in Chinese?

A kilogram is 公斤 (gōngjīn) or 千克 (qiānkè), a gram 克 (kè) and a ton 吨 (dūn); a metre is 米 (mǐ), a centimetre 厘米 (límǐ) and a kilometre 公里 (gōnglǐ); a litre is 升 (shēng). Temperatures are in 度 (dù), degrees Celsius 摄氏度 (shèshìdù): 今天三十度 is “it’s 30 degrees today”.

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More for numbers in Chinese

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• Chinese measure words
• Money in Chinese
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