城中 (chéngzhōng): inside the city; downtown; central district of a city

Meanings

1 inside the city; downtown; central district of a city

Characters

城

Examples

城中的房价比郊区高很多。

Chéngzhōng de fángjià bǐ jiāoqū gāo hěn duō.

Property prices in the city centre are much higher than in the suburbs.

柳州市城中区人口密集。

Liǔzhōushì Chéngzhōngqū rénkǒu mìjí.

Chengzhong District of Liuzhou is densely populated.

Tips

usage

Also the official name of several administrative districts called 城中区 (Chengzhong District), e.g. in Liuzhou, Xining and Taiwan's Taipei-era administrative map. In everyday speech 城中 just means 'downtown' or 'within the city proper' — contrasted with 城外 or 郊区.

culture

The infamous 城中村 (chéngzhōngcūn, 'village-within-the-city') refers to informal urban villages swallowed up by expanding Chinese megacities — dense, cheap enclaves where migrant workers live cheek-by-jowl.