HSK 6 · Places

乡镇 xiāngzhèn “towns and villages” in Chinese

Traditional 鄉鎮

What 乡镇 means

  1. towns and villages
  2. township
  3. townships and towns (collective term for the two principal township-level administrative divisions)
  4. small towns (general sense)

How to say 乡镇

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale乡xiāng1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale镇zhèn4th tone, falling

乡镇 in a sentence

  1. 他在一个乡镇医院当医生。

    Tā zài yí ge xiāngzhèn yīyuàn dāng yīshēng.

    He’s a doctor at a township hospital.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 这几年，附近的乡镇变化很大。

    Zhè jǐ nián, fùjìn de xiāngzhèn biànhuà hěn dà.

    In recent years the nearby towns and villages have changed a lot.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 乡镇 is built

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.

The character 乡 (xiāng) drawn as one shape
乡xiāngcountry or countryside

乡 is a single shape of 3 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

The character 镇 (zhèn) with each of its parts in a different colour
镇zhènto press down
  • 钅gold form of 金 · jīnMeaning part
  • 真real · zhēnSound part

钅 hints at the meaning (gold); 真 (zhēn) hints at the sound. Compare it with zhèn.

How to write 乡镇

乡 3 strokes · 镇 15 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

乡镇 (xiāngzhèn) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 乡镇 (xiāngzhèn). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 乡镇

Words with 乡

家乡jiāxiāng · hometown故乡gùxiāng · hometown

Words with 镇

镇定zhèndìng · calm镇静zhènjìng · calm

More words: Places & Geography

亭子tíngzi · pavilion峡谷xiágǔ · canyon现场xiànchǎng · scene巷xiàng · lane沿海yánhǎi · coastal园林yuánlín · gardens中央zhōngyāng · centre州zhōu · state

FAQs

乡镇 (xiāngzhèn) means “towns and villages” or “township”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it xiāngzhèn: xiāng with a 1st tone, then zhèn with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 乡镇 is written 鄉鎮. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiangzhen with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 乡镇 from the suggestions. Typing xiangzhen into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
乡镇 is an HSK 6 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.