山 shān — mountain, hill

Pinyin

• shān (first tone, high and level)

mountain, hill

Character breakdown

• 山shape partA single pictograph: three peaks rising from one base.

Mnemonic

Three peaks on a single base, the middle one tallest — a range drawn against the sky, and one of the few characters that still looks like the thing it names. It stands alone in 爬山, "to climb a mountain", and joins fire to make 火山, a volcano. Set above another character it flattens out, as it does on top of 岁.

A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.

Words containing 山

• 爬山páshān (second tone, rising)to climb a mountain, to go hiking