Jin (Chinese) to Metric Tons (jin to t)

1 jin (Chinese) equals 0.0005 metric tons exactly.

1 jin (Chinese) = 0.0005 metric tons

How to convert jin (Chinese) to metric tons

To convert jin (Chinese) to metric tons, multiply the number of jin (Chinese) by 0.0005. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply metric tons by 2,000.

metric tons = jin (Chinese) × 0.0005

Example: 10 jin (Chinese) = 0.005 metric tons.

About these units

Jin (Chinese) (jin)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Exactly 500 g in the modern Chinese market system, used in grocery markets across China. Often called a catty.

Anyone buying fruit or vegetables in a Chinese market is quoted prices per jin, and in English the unit is often called a catty, a word from the Malay kati. The historical jin shifted a great deal. Tables give about 250 g before the Qin, 220 g in the Eastern Han, 440 g in the Northern Wei, around 661 g in the Tang, 633 g in the Song and Yuan, and about 590 g in the Ming and Qing.

Modern values are tied to political decisions more than to ancient practice. The Republic's 1930 system set the jin at 500 g with 16 liang, and that mass was retained in mainland China after 1959, which is the figure used here. Hong Kong keeps a jin of about 604.79 g, and Taiwan uses 600 g. A jin is 10 liang on the mainland but 16 elsewhere, and 100 jin form one dan, also called a picul.

1 jin (Chinese) = 0.5 kilograms (exactly).

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

Metric Ton (t)

Metric (SI)Current unit

1,000 kilograms (about 2,204.6 lb), also spelled tonne. Used for cargo, grain and vehicle weights outside the US.

Barrels gave the tonne its name. The word goes back to a Germanic root for a large cask, the tun, and a full tun could easily weigh around a tonne. In English this became ton; the spelling tonne has been used in France since 1842, where it replaced the older tonneau, and pre-metric French tonnes were 2,000 livres, about 979 kg. Once the metric system took hold, the tonne was fixed at 1,000 kilograms, which is the mass of roughly a cubic metre of water.

The unit is accepted for use with the SI, and its symbol is a lowercase t with no period. Because it sits close to the old English ton, the two get confused: the short ton used in the US is about 10 percent lighter than a tonne, while the long ton differs by less than 2 percent. NIST calls the unit the metric ton, and the spelling tonne is rare in the US. Very large quantities are stated in prefixed forms such as the megatonne, which equals a teragram. In explosives, a tonne of TNT is taken as about 4.2 gigajoules.

1 metric ton = 1,000 kilograms (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Tonne; Wikipedia: Ton; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8 (mass conversions)

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