Chi (Chinese) to Feet (chi to ft)

1 chi (Chinese) equals 1.093613298 feet (rounded).

1 chi (Chinese) = 1.093613298 feet

How to convert chi (Chinese) to feet

To convert chi (Chinese) to feet, multiply the number of chi (Chinese) by 1.093613298. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply feet by 0.9144.

feet = chi (Chinese) × 1.093613298

Example: 10 chi (Chinese) = 10.93613298 feet.

About these units

Chi (Chinese) (chi)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

The Chinese foot, one third of a meter in the modern market system. Ancient chi were much shorter, around 23 cm in the Han dynasty.

Span of the hand between thumb tip and forefinger tip is the origin usually given for the chi, which appeared in the Shang dynasty roughly three thousand years ago. Its size drifted for centuries. Surviving rulers and bronze standards suggest about 23 cm under the Qin and Han, and tables list values between roughly 17 and 20 cm for the Shang and Western Zhou. By the Qing, figures between about 31 and 36 cm were in use depending on trade and region.

A British report of 1864 shows how messy the later situation was: engineers' public works used about 32.3 cm, surveyors about 30.6 cm, and Guangzhou merchants about 37 cm. Republican China fixed the unit against the meter, and the figure used here is the modern market chi of exactly one third of a meter, about 33.3 cm. Ten cun make one chi and ten chi make one zhang. Hong Kong's chek is longer at 0.371475 m, and Taiwan follows the Japanese shaku.

1 chi (Chinese) = 0.3333333333 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Chi (unit); Wikipedia: Chinese units of measurement

Foot (ft)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

12 inches. Defined as exactly 0.3048 meters. Still the standard unit for height, altitude in aviation and room dimensions in the US and UK.

Human anatomy supplied the idea: an adult foot is roughly 15 percent of body height. Ancient cultures turned that into standards, but not the same one. The Greek pous was about 302 mm, the standard Roman pes about 295.7 mm, and a Harappan foot of about 335 mm has been reported from the Indus Valley. Historically, a foot fell somewhere between about 250 and 335 mm. Charlemagne tried to standardize units around 790 with little lasting success, and in 1593 English law fixed the statute mile at 5,280 feet.

The modern foot dates from the 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement, which defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 meter and so the foot as exactly 0.3048 meter; the UK adopted it on 1 January 1964. The US survey foot, defined in 1893 as 1200/3937 meter, was deprecated on 31 December 2022. Feet remain in everyday use for height and rooms in the US, and ISO shipping containers are defined in them. Aviation altitudes use them too: flight level 330 means 33,000 feet.

1 foot = 0.3048 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Foot (unit); Wikipedia: Mile; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

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