(xiāng): country or countryside, native place, home village or town

(xiāng) is a Chinese character meaning “country or countryside.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical (tiny). It ranks #922 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 4Radical: tiny3 strokesFrequency #922

Definitions

  1. country or countryside
  2. native place
  3. home village or town

Stroke Order

1
2
3

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounxiāng cūnrustic5
nounjiā xiānghometown4
noungù xiānghome5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xiāng xiacountryside
xiāng jiānin the country
lǎo xiāngfellow townsman
mèng xiāngthe land of dreams
xiāng qīnfellow countryman (from the same village)
yì xiāngforeign land
sī xiāngto be homesick
fǎn xiāngto return to one's home town
tā xiāngforeign land
xiāng tǔnative soil
tóng xiāngperson from the same village, town, or province
xiāng zhènvillage
xiāng lǐone's home town or village
xiāng chóuhomesickness
xiāng shēna scholar or government official living in one's village
100
Total compounds
28
As first character
70
As last character
2
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 28 as the first character, 70 as the last, and 2 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

cūn
0.549111,402 co-occurrences
zhèn
0.53571,742 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.50860,252 co-occurrences
shì
0.50528,866 co-occurrences
chè
0.49826,202 co-occurrences
shēn
0.4842,754 co-occurrences
píng
0.4684,476 co-occurrences
xián
0.4626,324 co-occurrences
xiá
0.46017,244 co-occurrences
píng
0.4285,496 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

bèijǐnglíxiāngHSK 6+

to leave one's native place and move elsewhere

phrase
gàolǎohuánxiāngHSK 4+

to retire and return to one's native place

phrase
kèsǐtāxiāngHSK 4+

to die in a foreign land

phrase
líxiāngbèijǐngHSK 6+

to leave one's hometown and move elsewhere

phrase
qióngxiāngpìrǎngHSK 7+

remote and backward places

phrase
rùxiāngsuísúHSK 5+

when in Rome, do as the Romans do

phrase
xiāngcūn yīnyuèHSK 4+

country music

noun
yījǐnhuánxiāngHSK 7+

to return home a success; to return home in glory

phrase
yìguótāxiāngHSK 6+

foreign countries or lands; far away from one's native place

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le xiāng zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "乡" in the dictionary.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

国教署投1.4亿 助偏839校活化教学

guó jiào shǔ tóu 1 . 4 yì zhù piān xiāng 8 3 9 jiào huó huà jiào xué

The State Education Administration invested 140 million yuan to help 839 schools in rural areas revitalize teaching

公視新聞網 PnnFeb 2026

河川地生长香氛植物“石荠薴” 花莲光复民尝试复育

hé chuān dì shēng cháng xiāng fēn zhí wù shí 荠 薴 huā lián guāng fù xiāng mín cháng shì fù yù

The fragrant plant "Shi Shen Zhi" grows in the river land, and the villagers of Hualien Guangfu try to restore it

百度新闻Feb 2026

...春走基层)福建屏南:古桥“万安”横碧水 宴“..

. . . chūn zǒu jī céng ) fú jiàn bǐng nán : gǔ qiáo wàn ān héng bì shuǐ xiāng yàn . .

... Spring to the grassroots) Pingnan, Fujian: Guqiao "Wan'an" Hengbi Water Township Banquet":

百度新闻Feb 2026

冬奥会|家连线:“我儿子是冠军!”——宁忠岩家....

dōng ào huì jiā xiāng lián xiàn : wǒ ér zǐ shì guàn jūn ! — — nìng zhōng yán jiā xiāng . . . .

Winter Olympics|Hometown Connection: "My son is a champion!" ——Ning Zhongyan's hometown....

百度新闻Feb 2026

冬奥会|家连线:“最强夫妻档”!电影都不敢这么演....

dōng ào huì jiā xiāng lián xiàn : zuì qiáng fū qī dàng ! diàn yǐng dōu bù gǎn zhè má yǎn . . . .

Winter Olympics|Hometown Connection: "The Strongest Couple"! The movie doesn't dare to act like this....

Tatoeba

他在村里过着无忧无虑的生活。

Tā zài xiāngcūn lǐ guò zhe wúyōuwúlǜ de shēnghuó.

He is leading an easy life in the country.

Tatoeba

她被安葬在她的家

Tā bèi ānzàng zài tā de jiāxiāng.

She was buried in her hometown.

Tatoeba

我在下被抚养长大。

Wǒ zài xiāngxia bèi fǔyǎng zhǎngdà.

I was brought up in the country.

Tatoeba

我不知道愁的滋味。

Wǒ bù zhīdào xiāngchóu de zīwèi.

I don't know what it is to be homesick.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the tiny radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiāng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 乡 (xiāng) mean in Chinese?
乡 (xiāng) primarily means "country or countryside." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #922 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 乡 have?
乡 is written with 3 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 乡?
The radical associated with 乡 is 幺 (tiny). This radical appears in many characters related to tiny.
What are common words containing 乡?
Common words with 乡 include: 乡村 (xiāng cūn, "rustic"); 家乡 (jiā xiāng, "hometown"); 乡下 (xiāng xia, "countryside"); 故乡 (gù xiāng, "home"); 乡间 (xiāng jiān, "in the country"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 乡 (xiāng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiāng: 相 (mutual, appearance), 香 (fragrant), 箱 (box), 详 (detailed), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 乡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 乡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.