How to Write 鄱 (pó) — Meaning “Po (used in place names)”

Imagine the left part 番 looks like a field (田) with a farmer (采) working on it, and the right radical 阝looks like a hill. So you can picture a "po" (鄱) farm on a hill beside Poyang Lake. The sound "pó" can also remind you of "po" as in "po"-tato field.

Pay attention to the left side 番: it has 12 strokes, and the top is 采 (not 釆). A common mistake is writing the top part as 米+田 incorrectly. The right radical 阝has 2 strokes (horizontal fold, vertical). Also keep the character balanced, with the left side slightly wider than the right.

鄱 (pó) is used in place names such as Poyang Lake, while 鄙 (bǐ) means "vulgar" or "contemptible" and has a different left component (啚). 鄞 (yín) is another place name (used in Ningbo's Yinzhou district). Visually, 鄙 has 口 and 啚 on the left, 鄞 has 堇 on the left, while 鄱 has 番 on the left.

鄱 is almost exclusively used in the geographical name Poyang Lake (鄱阳湖), China's largest freshwater lake in Jiangxi Province. It also appears in the city name Poyang (鄱阳) county. Culturally, Poyang Lake is famous for its wetlands and bird migration, so the character often appears in nature and travel contexts.

Common words containing 鄱 include: 鄱阳湖 (pó yáng hú) — Poyang Lake; 鄱阳 (pó yáng) — Poyang (a place name in Jiangxi); 鄱湖 (pó hú) — Po Lake (short for Poyang Lake).