Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.
北běinorthBěi in 北京
北 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.
Memory aidDrawn from two people sitting back to back; later borrowed for “north”.
京jīngcapital city of a country
亠lid · tóu
口mouth · kǒu
小small · xiǎo
Memory aidDrawn from a tall building on a rise: the capital.
How to write 北京
北 5 strokes · 京 8 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.
Stroke order chart for 北京 (Běijīng). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.
北京 (Běijīng) means “Beijing” or “Beijing municipality, capital of the People’s Republic of China (short name 京)”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it Běijīng: Běi with a 3rd tone, then jīng with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 北京 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type beijing with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 北京 from the suggestions. Typing beijing into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
北京 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.
北Běi3rd tone, dipping
京jīng1st tone, high and level
