千山万水

Pronunciation: qiān shān wàn shuǐ Literal meaning: Thousand mountains, ten thousand rivers

Origin & Usage

A thousand (千) mountains (山), ten thousand (万) rivers (水). Chinese uses paired large numbers as an intensifier rather than a count, and the pairing here is geographic in a specific way: mountains and rivers are what actually stopped pre-modern travel, so the phrase measures distance in obstacles rather than in miles. It survives mainly in the language of separation — the distance between people who cannot easily reach each other — and it appears constantly in songs, letters and the standard phrase for having come a long way to be present.

Examples

English: "After traveling through countless obstacles, she finally reached her destination."

Chinese: 她经历了千山万水，终于到达了目的地。