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| Chinese units of measurement | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 A traditional Chinese scale | |||||||||
| Chinese | 市制 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | market system | ||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||
| Chinese | 市用制 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | market-use system | ||||||||
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Chinese units of measurement, known in Chinese as the shìzhì ("market system"), are the traditional units of measurement of the Han Chinese. Although Chinese numerals have been decimal (base-10) since the Shang, several Chinese measures use hexadecimal (base-16).[citation needed] Local applications have varied, but the Chinese dynasties usually proclaimed standard measurements and recorded their predecessor's systems in their histories.
In the present day, the People's Republic of China maintains some customary units based upon the market units but standardized to round values in the metric system, for example the common jin or catty of exactly 500 g. The Chinese name for most metric units is based on that of the closest traditional unit; when confusion might arise, the word "market" (市, shì) is used to specify the traditional unit and "common" or "public" (公, gōng) is used for the metric value. Taiwan, like Korea, saw its traditional units standardized to Japanese values and their conversion to a metric basis, such as the Taiwanese ping of about 3.306 m2 based on the square ken. The Hong Kong SAR continues to use its traditional units, now legally defined based on a local equation with metric units. For instance, the Hong Kong catty is precisely 604.78982 g.
Note: The names lí (釐 or 厘) and fēn (分) for small units are the same for length, area, and mass; however, they refer to different kinds of measurements.