guàng
verb HSK 4 #4,567

Meanings

  1. 1 to stroll; to wander around
  2. 2 to visit (shops, parks, etc.); to browse

Examples

Wǒmen qù guàngjiē ba.
Let's go shopping.
Zhōumò wǒ xǐhuān guàng gōngyuán.
I like to stroll in the park on weekends.
Tā huā le yīzhěngtiān guàng shāngchǎng.
She spent the whole day browsing the mall.

Tips

usage
逛街 literally means 'to stroll the streets' but is the standard Chinese expression for 'to go shopping' — even if you end up in a mall, not on a street.
memory
The (walk) radical + (wild/crazy) = wandering around in a carefree, slightly wild way — browsing without a clear destination.

Components

radical
chuò
walking; movement (motion radical)
Outer motion radical (left-bottom wrap form of ) — the indexing radical, signalling movement from place to place. anchors a verb-of-motion family: (go), (enter), (side), (far), (road), all using this same wrap-around walking marker.
phonetic
kuáng
wild; crazy
Inner supplies the sound (kuáng → guàng, tone and aspiration drift in the same kw-/gw- family) and a flavor of unconstrained wandering. Together with the motion radical: walking around in a carefree, slightly aimless way — exactly browsing or strolling without a fixed destination.

Stroke Order

guàng