What does 站 mean in Chinese?

站 (zhàn) means "station" in Chinese. The new HSK exam expects you to recognise it at HSK 2.

How do you write 站?

站 is written with 10 strokes, starting from the 立 (stand) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 站?

The radical of 站 is 立 (stand, Kangxi radical #117). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 立.

How many strokes does 站 have?

The Chinese character 站 has 10 strokes.

What HSK level is 站?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 站 is a character to recognise at HSK 2.

站 (zhàn): Meaning, Stroke Order, Radical & Examples

站

zhàn

station

HSK 2 character 10 strokes Radical: 立 (stand)

Quick Answer

站 (zhàn) means "station" with 10 strokes, radical 立 (stand), HSK 2 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 站 →Animated stroke-order for 站 →

Pronunciation

zhàn

Meaning

Primary: station

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

站 does not appear in oracle bone or bronze script. It is a relatively late phono-semantic compound combining 立 (to stand) as the semantic component with 占 (zhān) as the phonetic. The character was coined to write a word meaning 'to stand upright' that earlier had been written with other graphs.

Form evolution

Because 站 is a post-classical formation, its earliest attested forms are already in clerical and regular script. 立 on the left retains the shape of a person standing on the ground, itself traceable to an oracle bone pictograph of a frontal human figure with feet planted. 占 on the right has been stable in form since the seal script, showing 卜 over 口.

How the meaning evolved

The original sense is physical standing. During the Yuan dynasty, under Mongol influence, 站 took on the borrowed meaning of a postal relay or waypoint (from Mongolian jam), giving 驿站. From there the sense extended to any fixed stopping point, which is why modern 站 covers train stations (火车站), bus stops (公共汽车站), and websites (网站).

Cultural note

The 'station' sense is a loanword meaning grafted onto a native Chinese form, one of the clearest traces of Yuan-era Mongol administration surviving in everyday Mandarin. Learners often assume 站 always meant 'station', but in classical texts it almost exclusively means 'to stand'.

Mnemonic

Standing to occupy a spot — a station

Decomposition

站=立radical+占component

Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.

Basic info

Pinyin	zhàn
Meanings	station
Stroke count	10 strokes
Radical	立 (#117: stand)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 2
Frequency	#480 most common

Example sentences

火车站离这里很近。
Huǒchēzhàn lí zhèlǐ hěn jìn.
The train station is very close to here.
From 火车站
我在车站等你。
Wǒ zài chēzhàn děng nǐ.
I'm waiting for you at the station.
From 站 (HSK 2)
前面有加油站。
Qiánmiàn yǒu jiāyóuzhàn.
There's a gas station ahead.
From 加油站 (HSK 4)

Words containing 站

Word	Pinyin	Meaning	HSK
火车站	huǒchēzhàn	train station
站	zhàn	station	HSK 2
加油站	jiāyóuzhàn	Gas station	HSK 4
网站	wǎngzhàn	website	HSK 3
车站	chēzhàn	station, depot	HSK 2