跋山涉水

Pronunciation: bá shān shè shuǐ Literal meaning: Climb mountains, ford waters

Origin & Usage

Scrambling over (跋) mountains (山) and wading (涉) rivers (水). Both verbs are specific about effort — 跋 is a hard slog on foot, 涉 is going through water rather than over it — so what is named is travel that had to be done with the body. It covers a whole journey rather than a single obstacle, which is what separates it from its neighbours. Remote fieldwork takes it literally and any long undertaking figuratively, with the emphasis on distance covered rather than on any one difficulty.

Examples

English: "They overcame many obstacles to reach their destination."

Chinese: 他们跋山涉水，克服重重困难到达目的地。