翻天覆地

fāntiānfùdì
idiom HSK 7 #18,331

Meanings

  1. 1 earth-shattering
  2. 2 world-shaking
  3. 3 tremendous (change)
  4. 4 turning everything upside down

Examples

Gǎigé kāifàng yǐlái, Zhōngguó fāshēng le fāntiānfùdì de biànhuà.
Since reform and opening up, China has undergone earth-shattering changes.
Kējì de fāzhǎn gěi rénmen de shēnghuó dàilái le fāntiānfùdì de biànhuà.
Technological development has brought tremendous changes to people's lives.

Tips

memory
Literally 'flip the sky, overturn the earth' — the change is so massive that heaven and earth switch places. Almost always paired with 变化 (change).
usage
Overwhelmingly used in the collocation 翻天覆地变化 (earth-shattering changes). Very common in Chinese media when describing national development or historical transformations.

Stroke Order

fān
tiān