Zhang (Chinese) to Yards (zhang to yd)

1 zhang (Chinese) equals 3.645377661 yards (rounded).

1 zhang (Chinese) = 3.645377661 yards

How to convert zhang (Chinese) to yards

To convert zhang (Chinese) to yards, multiply the number of zhang (Chinese) by 3.645377661. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply yards by 0.27432.

yards = zhang (Chinese) × 3.645377661

Example: 10 zhang (Chinese) = 36.45377661 yards.

About these units

Zhang (Chinese) (zhang)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Ten chi, 10/3 m (about 3.33 m) in the modern market system.

Ten chi made one zhang, so the unit was always a measure of the human scale of buildings and cloth rather than of personal reach. It turns up in Chinese architecture as a way to describe the width of a bay and the height of walls and pillars. Since the chi itself changed from dynasty to dynasty, the zhang changed in step with it and had no independent standard.

Republican law fixed it twice. In 1915 the Republic of China set it at about 3.2 m, and in 1930 the figure was revised to exactly 10/3 m, about 3.33 m, which is the value used here. Mainland China uses it rarely today, and everyday speech tends toward meters. The Japanese jo is built the same way from ten shaku, giving about 3.03 m, which shows how a shared structure produced different lengths.

1 zhang (Chinese) = 3.333333333 meters (approximately).

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

Yard (yd)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

3 feet or 36 inches, exactly 0.9144 meters. Used for sports fields, fabric and short distances in the US and UK.

Yard descends from the Old English gerd or gyrd, meaning a branch, stave or measuring rod. It first appears in the late seventh-century laws of Ine of Wessex, though there it names a tax unit, the yardland. Around 959 to 963 King Edgar ordered that the measure held at Winchester be used throughout his realm, the earliest record of a prototype. A story that Henry I fixed the yard as the distance from his nose to his thumb is later folklore, and the true origin, whether pace, cubit or waist, remains speculative.

Britain defined the Imperial Standard Yard in 1824 as the distance between two marks on a brass rod at 62 degrees Fahrenheit. A fire in 1834 damaged the standard, a replacement was made in 1845, and the Weights and Measures Act 1855 recognized it. The 1959 international agreement then fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter. Today it measures American and Canadian football fields, association football pitches and cricket pitches, appears on UK road signs for short distances, and is still used to sell fabric in the US and UK.

1 yard = 0.9144 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Yard; Wikipedia: Inch; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

Related conversions

See all length units.