Chinese Measurements vs the Metric System

In ancient China the measurement system was quite different and they were often based off of body parts or local geographic features. So even though the name for each measurement was the same, they would vary widely between provinces. As the provinces (and the world) became more interconnected these differences had to be eliminated. There were several reforms leading to the current system which is somewhat related to the metric system. Officially, China is on the metric system, though the traditional Chinese measurements are still commonly used in everyday life.

Below are the most common measurements in both systems. Sometimes the character for the measurement is found in both the Chinese and metric systems. In these cases, 市 shì (from ‘market system’) is used to clarify that a measurement belongs to the Chinese system and 公 gōng is used before metric measurements.

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