这里
zhèlǐ · HSK 1
here
📍 这 (this) + 里 (inside) = this inside-spot, i.e. here
这 marks 'this' (demonstrative); 里 originally meant 'inside' or a village unit, now also used for location. Together 这里 literally reads 'this-inside', which Mandarin uses for 'this place / here'.
这 — walk radical 辶 + speech 言
这 is the simplified form of 這. The traditional character combines the walk/movement radical 辶 with 言 (speech), originally meaning 'to meet' or 'to encounter on the way.' Over time it shifted to function as the demonstrative 'this,' likely through phonetic borrowing in vernacular Chinese.
里 — 田 (field) + 土 (earth)
Originally a pictograph combining 田 (field) and 土 (earth), depicting cultivated land where people lived. It came to mean 'village' or 'hometown,' and by extension a unit of distance (about 500 meters). The 'inside' meaning is borrowed; that sense was traditionally written 裏 or 裡.