Word.ws English Dictionary

Zhongnanhai

Syllables: Zhong·nan·hai/ˌd͡ʒʊŋ.nɑnˈhaɪ/

Zhongnanhai proper noun: an area and building in Xicheng district, Beijing, China, which houses the government leaders of the People's Republic of China.

zhongnanhai: an area and building in Xicheng district, Beijing, China, which houses the government leaders of...
Image: CIA/NRO/USGS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Zhongnanhai

  1. An area and building in Xicheng district, Beijing, China, which houses the government leaders of the People's Republic of China.
    • A second tear-gas attack, combined with a violent nightstick attack on demonstrators, occurred about an hour later in front of the Communist Party headquarters at Zhongnanhai.1989 June 4, Daniel Southerl, “TROOPS ROLL THROUGH BEIJING TO CRUSH PROTESTERS”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Apr 2023
    • Many of Beijing’s most important buildings sit near or alongside the square, including the Great Hall of the People, the Forbidden City, and Zhongnanhai, the compound in which many of the People’s Republic’s most senior leaders live.1998, George H. W. Bush, Brent Scowcroft, “Untying a Knot”, in A World Transformed, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 86–87
  2. (metonymically) The government of the People's Republic of China; the central leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
    • Today, many people can already travel to the Chinese mainland, to Shanghai or Beijing, and talk with the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party about cross-strait relations. Why is it that we have no way to shake hands at home, to meet with each other to discuss national affairs, to form a...2000 September 6, Chen Shui-bian, “President Chen Shui-bian's Third Press Conference (excerpt: cross-strait relations)”, in Mainland Affairs Council, archived from the original on 03 Sep 2019...
    • On May 15 Zhongnanhai received reports on the student movement in fourteen provinces.[…]
    • Twenty foreign press reports of May 15 were summarized for Zhongnanhai.2001, “May 6-16: Hunger Strike”, in The Tiananmen Papers, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 172–173
    Synonyms:
    Beijing

Examples of Zhongnanhai in a sentence

  • In an extraordinary gesture of generosity, President Hu hosted a lunch for us all at the government’s Zhongnanhai Compound, a Bush family reunion like none before or since.2010, George W. Bush, Decision Points, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 429:
  • A popular saying when Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao was in power was: "Policies do not go beyond Zhongnanhai," the leadership compound in central Beijing.2021 August 11, Andrew Galbraith, “Analysis: China regulatory storm tests nerves, limits of top-down policy”, in Reuters, archived from the...
  • Is it possible that domestic politics are more important than the Chinese Communists and Zhongnanhai?2000 September 6, Chen Shui-bian, “President Chen Shui-bian's Third Press Conference (excerpt: cross-strait relations)”, in Mainland...
  • Today, it seems that Zhongnanhai needs some acquiescence from society in order to proceed with its priority policy package.2006, Shiping Tang, “Projecting China's Foreign Policy: Determining Factors and Scenarios”, in Jae Ho Chung, editor, Charting China's...

Synonyms of Zhongnanhai

Forms of Zhongnanhai

alternative formZhong Nan Hai
alternative formChungnanhai
alternative formChung-nan-hai
alternative formChung Nan Hai

Origin of Zhongnanhai

The atonal Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 中南海 (Zhōngnánhǎi, “Central South Sea”), a compound of the names 中海 (zhōnghǎi, “Central Sea”) + 南海 (Nánhǎi, “South Sea; Nanhai”), two lakes in central Beijing just west of the Forbidden City.

Words formed from Zhongnanhai

  • Zhongnanhaiology

Questions about Zhongnanhai

What does Zhongnanhai mean?
Zhongnanhai means an area and building in Xicheng district, Beijing, China, which houses the government leaders of the People's Republic of China.
How do you use Zhongnanhai in a sentence?
In an extraordinary gesture of generosity, President Hu hosted a lunch for us all at the government’s Zhongnanhai Compound, a Bush family reunion like none before or since.
What part of speech is Zhongnanhai?
Zhongnanhai is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Zhongnanhai?
Zhongnanhai is pronounced /ˌd͡ʒʊŋ.nɑnˈhaɪ/.

Words near Zhongnanhai in the dictionary

  1. Zhongjian Island
  2. Zhongli
  3. Zhonglou
  4. Zhonglu
  5. Zhongmu
  6. Zhongnanhai
  7. Zhongning
  8. Zhongqiu
  9. zhongruan
  10. Zhongs
  11. Zhongsha

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Zhongnanhai (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Zhongnanhai.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zhongnanhai. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.