工厂
gōngchǎng · HSK 3
factory
🏭 工厂 = work/labor (工) + factory/yard (厂)
工 depicts a carpenter's square (a tool of labor); 厂 is a cliff-side shelter or open shed. Together: a sheltered place where work happens — a factory.
厂 — single radical 厂 (cliff)
厂 is a pictograph of an overhanging cliff or rock shelter, showing a sloping line where stone juts out over the ground. It serves as a radical in many characters relating to factories, workshops, or things found under cliffs. In modern simplified Chinese it was also borrowed to write 廠 (chǎng, 'factory').