故乡 gùxiāng home
home; homeland; native place
How to remember 故乡: 故 former + 乡 country = home.
Characters
How it is used
- One's hometown/native place, with nostalgic warmth - 思念故乡 (sīniàn gùxiāng) long for one's homeland.
- Literary and sentimental, the home you left and feel tied to. Distinguish from 老家 (lǎojiā, the everyday spoken 'hometown/family home') and 家乡 (jiāxiāng, hometown, neutral-warm).
- 故 = old/former; common in poetry and homesick writing.
Example sentences
- 他10年中第一次访问他的故乡。 Tā 10nián zhōng dìyīcì fǎngwèn tā de gùxiāng.He visited his hometown for the first time in ten years.