In my Chinese visa, against "Days after entry", I find this character: 天
Google translate says it means day, sky, heavens, God, etc. What exactly does it mean in this context?
Edit: You can see it here:
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8It means "days" (天 means sky. The only time you can see the blue sky is daytime, and that's where the meaning "days" originated.)– Derek 朕會功夫Jun 18, 2014 at 20:15
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7The translation to English is directly beneath the character in question--and even mentioned in the question. I don't understand why this question was asked. :/– FlimzyJun 18, 2014 at 20:39
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5@Flimzy Because some people feel uneasy if they just assume the meaning of the visa, and prefer to know it? I would.– Volker SiegelJun 18, 2014 at 22:15
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2@Flimzy 1) Because some of the other Chinese characters did not have an English counterpart. Eg. the place where the visa was issued. 2) Because when travelling to other countries especially where there is a language barrier you should be extra cautious not to break visa or any rules for that matter. An overstay in EU is not serious but could get you serious jail time in some countries.– PrometheusJun 19, 2014 at 8:24
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Sometimes in English moons = months. Kinda like that.– Astor FloridaJul 31, 2019 at 1:29
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5 Answers
"天" means "days". You might be confused by the "after entry" part and thought why "天" is translated into "days after entry". This is because of Chinese word order. In English, "after entry" is placed at the end of the sentence, after the number 090; while in Chinese, it ("入境后") is placed at the beginning.
I think it means "days".
It's just a name of the field "days after entry" on chinese language.
"Duration of each stay 090 days"
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2To verify @MikkaRin is correct, simply enter 90天 into Google translate. ;-) Jun 18, 2014 at 15:34
It is preceded by (English and Chinese) text that says "Length of stay." And then the number 90.
So the whole message reads: Length of stay: 90 DAYs, with 天 meaning "days." That's typical for a visa.
天 can also mean day(s) (as stated by Google Translate) and is the most appropriate translation here (given that the English says days after entry. Any decent dictionary, such as Nciku here, will give that as a definition with some explanation. However, 天 in the sense of "days" is never used alone as a word and generally comes with some sort of qualifier.
In this context, 天 means day. But in the traditional Chinese culture, if you say 天 as a single word, it has the meaning as "God". For example, you can say 我的天 in China to express your surprise or strong emotions, just like "My God". Yes, 天 actually has the same position in Chinese culture as the God.
