How to Write 廛 (chán) — Meaning “marketplace”

Imagine a market stall with a wide roof (广) built in a village (里). The village has fields (田) and dirt (土), and the roof covers everything — think "roofed village market" to recall the shape and meaning of 廛.

Make sure the upper radical 广 has its dot at the top-left and the horizontal stroke extends well to the right before hooking down. The lower part 里 must be written with the field (田) on top of earth (土), and the overall character should be balanced vertically without compressing the bottom.

廛 means "marketplace" and has 里 (village) below its roof, while 廉 (lián) means "honest" or "cheap" and contains 兼 (double). 廑 (jǐn) means "hut" or "miserable" and contains 堇 (clay). Visually, 廛 looks like a roof over a village square, while the others replace that village part with different components.

廛 is not a common everyday character in modern Chinese; it appears mainly in literary or historical contexts, often in compound words like 市廛 (shìchán, marketplace shops) or 廛市 (chánshì, market). You might encounter it when reading classical texts or describing traditional Chinese market scenes.

Common words containing 廛 include: 市廛 (shì chán) — marketplace; shops; 廛里 (chán lǐ) — neighborhood; 廛市 (chán shì) — market.