拆迁
chāi qiān · HSK 6
to demolish a building and relocate the inhabitants
🏚️🚚 拆 = demolish + 迁 = relocate
拆 (chāi) means to tear down or dismantle; 迁 (qiān) means to move or migrate. Together they name the Chinese urban-renewal process where buildings are demolished and residents are relocated, often with compensation.
拆 — hand radical 扌 + 斥 chì (phonetic)
拆 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 (扌 = 手) gives the meaning, since taking apart or tearing down is done with the hands. The right side 斥 supplies the sound, originally close to 'chì,' which shifted to 'chāi' in modern Mandarin.
迁 — 辶 (walk) + 千 (qiān, phonetic)
迁 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the 辶 'walk/movement' radical gives the meaning of going or moving, while 千 supplies the sound qiān. The character originally meant to move from one place to another, and today it commonly means to relocate, transfer, or shift.