Li (Chinese) (li)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

The modern Chinese 'mile', set at exactly 500 meters. Imperial-era li varied widely, from about 323 m under the Tang to roughly 540-650 m under the Qing.

1 li (Chinese) = 500 meters (exactly).

About the li (Chinese)

Field and earth are the two components of the character for li, an apt picture of a distance about the size of a village. Chinese travel writing, military records and poetry counted roads in li, and phrases such as the ten-thousand-li Great Wall or thousand-li horses turned it into a figure of speech for great distance. English writers sometimes call it a Chinese mile, though it is nearer a third of an English mile.

Its length followed the chi and the number of chi counted per li. Wikipedia lists about 358 m for the Western Zhou, about 416 m for the Han, about 323 m for the Tang and 537 to 645 m for the Qing, when some usage counted 1,800 chi per li instead of 1,500. Republican li ranged around 500 to 545 m. The figure used here is the modern value of exactly 500 m, which is 1,500 modern chi.

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

Li (Chinese) conversion chart

1 li (Chinese) expressed in every other length unit:

More Chinese units

• fen (Chinese) (length)
• cun (Chinese) (length)
• chi (Chinese) (length)
• zhang (Chinese) (length)
• qian (Chinese) (weight & mass)
• liang (Chinese) (weight & mass)
• jin (Chinese) (weight & mass)
• dan (Chinese) (weight & mass)
• catty (Hong Kong) (weight & mass)
• tael (Hong Kong) (weight & mass)
• mu (Chinese) (area)
• qing (Chinese) (area)
• shichen (time)
• yi / oku (East Asian) (counting & quantity)

All Chinese units

Browse all length units.