gǎng
noun HSK 7-9 #4,680

Meanings

  1. 1 harbor; port
  2. 2 Hong Kong (abbreviation)

Examples

HSK 2
Chuán tíng zài gǎngkǒu.
The ship is docked at the port.
HSK 3
Tā qù guò Xiānggǎng liǎng cì.
He has been to Hong Kong twice.

Tips

usage
港口 (gǎngkǒu) = port/harbor, 香港 (Xiānggǎng) = Hong Kong, 港币 (gǎngbì) = Hong Kong dollar.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form)
Three drops of water on the left - the contracted form of . The indexing radical here. Harbours, ports, and inlets are water bodies, so the radical is literal. Same radical heads , , , - the river/water family that includes other water-channel words.
phonetic
xiàng
alley; lane
Right component supplies the sound (xiàng → gǎng, with significant Old Chinese drift between velar initials, but a regular pattern). itself means 'alley between walls' and adds a beautiful semantic echo: a harbour is a water-alley between landmasses, a narrow passage for boats. So is etymologically 'an alleyway made of water'. The Hong Kong (香港 'fragrant harbour') reading uses this character.

Stroke Order

gǎng