That's Mandarin: How to Complain About Crowds in Chinese!

Getting ready for the Chinese New Year break yet?

No matter if you're going to travel or have a staycation, all Chinese cities are going to be packed. And today we have a chéngyǔ (Chinese idiom) for you to describe the crowds!

Have you heard of the chéngyǔ “a sea of people”?

🚶‍♂️⛰️🚶‍♂️🌊

As you might already know, people in China love to travel during public holidays. Crowds are inevitable. As a result, tourist spots end up looking like oceans of people — or, in Chinese, "mountains" and "seas" of people:

人山人海

(rénshān rénhǎi)

crowds of people

lit. "people-mountain-people-sea"

Examples

So you can use this phrase any time you see a huge crowd of people:

这个艺术家很有名，他的展览会招来了好多人。真是人山人海呀！

Zhè gè yìshùjiā hěn yǒumíng, tā de zhǎnlǎnhuì zhāolái le hǎo duō rén, zhēn shì rénshān rénhǎi ya!

This artist is very famous, so many people came to his exhibition, just a sea of people!

中国春节的时候去旅游的人太多了，每个景区是人山人海。

Zhōngguó Chūnjié de shíhou qù lǚyóu de rén tài duō le, měi gè jǐngqū shì rénshān rénhǎi.

There are too many people traveling during Spring Festival in China, every tourist site is a sea of people.

Take It Further

Can you think of the last time you've been in a crowd?

How would you describe it using 人山人海?

Share your experience with us 👇

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