<p>兆 was used in ancient China to represent <strong>trillion</strong>, it is no longer used in mainland China, but still used in Taiwan, it uniquely represents the <strong>mega</strong> prefix in the International System of Units currently. But in Taiwan, 一兆 means <strong>one trillion</strong>, while 兆赫兹 means <strong>MHz</strong> (<strong>megahertz</strong>). The largest number that can be expressed in a single Chinese character is 亿 in mainland China, to express larger numbers, use the phrases like 万亿 or 亿亿. Of course, there are also Chinese characters that represent numbers larger than 亿 (<strong>100 million</strong>), but such a large number is not used generally, and nobody use them, except the ancient literature. You may learn them <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-04-16T05:19:25.953Z
2019-11-28T12:13:35.950Z
2019-11-28T12:13:35.950Z
xenophōn
<p>There are several historical counting systems in Chinese, many of those use the same character to represent different values. Although there is a standard counting system today, the remnant 兆 causes confusion.</p>

<p>The character 兆 in mainland China refers to a million. However, 兆 in Taiwan refers to this number 1,000,000,000,000.</p>

<p>The reason I wrote out 1,000,000,000,000 is that interestingly, English has the same confusion, since there exist not only one counting system in English, namely "the long system" and "the short system". In "the long system", 1,000,000,000,000 is referred to as a "billion"; in "the short system", 1,000,000,000,000 is referred to as a "milliard". This discrepancy cause lots of transatlantic confusions.</p>

<p>In Chinese, , this confusion is easily avoidable. Since 万 means 10,000 and 亿 means 100,000,000 across all systems, 万亿 is no doubt 1,000,000,000,000.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-05T13:57:07.843Z
2019-07-05T13:57:07.843Z
Chen Jesse
<p>According to Chinese (mainland) national standard, only the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix" rel="nofollow noreferrer">metric prefix</a> &quot;mega-&quot; (for 10<sup>6</sup>) is 兆, while a trillion (10<sup>12</sup>) should always be 万亿, never 兆.</p>
<p>e.g. 一兆字节 (or 一兆 for short) means one megabyte (1 MB), and 一兆赫 means one megahertz (1 MHz).</p>
<p><a href="http://zjj.beijing.gov.cn/wsbs/infoview.asp?ViewID=50494" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://zjj.beijing.gov.cn/wsbs/infoview.asp?ViewID=50494</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>10的6次方    兆   M</p>
<p>10的4次方称为万，10的8次方称为亿，10的12次方称为万亿</p>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<p>In Taiwan, most people use 兆 for 10<sup>12</sup>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-28T11:56:42.600Z
2019-11-28T12:34:00.117Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
Victor
<p>I am a Chinese PhD student studying computer science and communication engineering in London. 
I guess I might be the right person to give you the answer.<br>
兆 is usually used in IT context. If you use 万亿 in the context of IT, that would be weird. Except this, you can use 万亿 all the time. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-06T08:46:23.323Z
This is incorrect. In computer science context, 兆 is only used for Megabytes, where 兆 is a million, not a trillion. This is consistent with physics terms like Megahertz is called 兆赫 etc. In computer science, 一万亿 = 1 trillion is called 1T in Chinese.
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T04:21:15.860Z
Indeed, it is a trillion, not a million.
Tianhao Guo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-28T12:06:35.040Z
兆 is for the metric prefix "mega-" (for a million), such as 兆字节 (megabyte) and 兆赫 (megahertz). 万亿 is for a trillion. The metric prefix for a trillion is 太 (tera-), such as 太字节 (terabyte).
Victor
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-14T22:23:29.583Z
2018-04-14T22:23:29.583Z
Tianhao Guo
<p>Mainland China:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>91 2513 0522 6915 0159 = 91亿2513万522亿6915万159 (91亿亿)</p>
<p>1 MB = 1兆字节</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Taiwan:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>91 2513 0522 6915 0159 = 91京2513兆522亿6915万159</p>
<p>1 MB = 1百万字节</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-29T14:47:00.013Z
2019-11-29T14:55:52.360Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
shan
<p>Number over five digitals, namely beyond 萬, there are several ways of counting. 億兆京 has several interpretations. This causes discrepancy in meaning. In tradition, to avoid ambiguity, 萬萬, 十萬萬, 百萬萬, 千萬萬, 萬萬萬, 十萬萬萬... is used instead.</p>

<p>There are three interpretation of 一兆. </p>

<ol>
<li>一百萬 = 10⁶. Current it is found in some Chinese prefix of SI Units. 1 MHz = 一兆赫.</li>
<li>一萬萬萬 = 10¹². Big numbers count in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.</li>
<li>一萬萬萬萬 = 10¹⁶. </li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-15T17:59:46.243Z
2018-04-15T17:59:46.243Z
OmniBus
<p>我想你大概不小心把“兆开”写错了，你应该是想写‘召开’。</p>

<p>如今很少有人用兆来表示百万，我们更习惯直接说百万。兆现在是网络流量或电量的单位。</p>

<p>zdic.net 　3. 数名，等于百万（古代指万亿）：兆周（电磁波频率单位，每秒一百万周的频率为一兆周）。 </p>

<p>Nowadays, I hear not, many people write 兆, except when you want to express an extremely large amount.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-16T00:21:00.110Z
I've edited the question to correct the typo you mentioned.
fefe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-16T02:41:37.913Z
Sorry to trouble you, gf is somewhat pedantic! She complained.
Pedroski
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-14T13:34:02.913Z
2018-04-14T13:34:02.913Z
Pedroski
<p>In the following sentence:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>据悉，日本政府此次提出了在东京奥运会召开的2020年，使访日游客增至4000万人次，消费额达到<strong>8万亿</strong>日元的目标。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In this sentence, 万亿 is used instead of 兆, to express 10^12 digit.</p>

<p>In Chinese, <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28569/%E5%85%86-as-part-of-a-number">now 兆(zhào) might be rarely used to express "trillion" and instead 万亿 is used.</a></p>

<p>So when should I use 万亿 and when 兆 to express such a large number?</p>

<p>And also what about the case to express more than 万亿, such as 10^16? </p>

<p><a href="https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/18293/what-is-the-correct-syntax-for-large-numbers-in-kanji/18296#18296">Japanese use 万, 亿, 兆, 京...</a> but how about Chinese? Should I write it as <em>91<strong>万万亿</strong>2513万亿522亿6915万159</em> to express <em>912513052269150159</em>? or <em>91京2513兆522亿6915万159</em>?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-14T11:53:04.603Z
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals#Large_numbers - specifically the bottom section, `In practice, this situation does not lead to ambiguity...`
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-14T12:20:58.720Z
https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28569/%e5%85%86-as-part-of-a-number
user6065
<number>
When should I use 兆 instead of 万亿?
# When should I use 兆 instead of 万亿?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-04-14)

In the following sentence:

> 据悉，日本政府此次提出了在东京奥运会召开的2020年，使访日游客增至4000万人次，消费额达到**8万亿**日元的目标。

In this sentence, 万亿 is used instead of 兆, to express 10^12 digit.

In Chinese, [now 兆(zhào) might be rarely used to express "trillion" and instead 万亿 is used.](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28569/%E5%85%86-as-part-of-a-number)

So when should I use 万亿 and when 兆 to express such a large number?

And also what about the case to express more than 万亿, such as 10^16?

[Japanese use 万, 亿, 兆, 京...](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/18293/what-is-the-correct-syntax-for-large-numbers-in-kanji/18296#18296) but how about Chinese? Should I write it as *91**万万亿**2513万亿522亿6915万159* to express *912513052269150159*? or *91京2513兆522亿6915万159*?

**Tags:** number

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals#Large_numbers - specifically the bottom section, `In practice, this situation does not lead to ambiguity...`  
> **username_2**: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28569/%e5%85%86-as-part-of-a-number  

---

## 7 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-04-16. Score: 3

兆 was used in ancient China to represent **trillion**, it is no longer used in mainland China, but still used in Taiwan, it uniquely represents the **mega** prefix in the International System of Units currently. But in Taiwan, 一兆 means **one trillion**, while 兆赫兹 means **MHz** (**megahertz**). The largest number that can be expressed in a single Chinese character is 亿 in mainland China, to express larger numbers, use the phrases like 万亿 or 亿亿. Of course, there are also Chinese characters that represent numbers larger than 亿 (**100 million**), but such a large number is not used generally, and nobody use them, except the ancient literature. You may learn them [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals).


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2019-07-05. Score: 1

There are several historical counting systems in Chinese, many of those use the same character to represent different values. Although there is a standard counting system today, the remnant 兆 causes confusion.

The character 兆 in mainland China refers to a million. However, 兆 in Taiwan refers to this number 1,000,000,000,000.

The reason I wrote out 1,000,000,000,000 is that interestingly, English has the same confusion, since there exist not only one counting system in English, namely "the long system" and "the short system". In "the long system", 1,000,000,000,000 is referred to as a "billion"; in "the short system", 1,000,000,000,000 is referred to as a "milliard". This discrepancy cause lots of transatlantic confusions.

In Chinese, , this confusion is easily avoidable. Since 万 means 10,000 and 亿 means 100,000,000 across all systems, 万亿 is no doubt 1,000,000,000,000.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2019-11-28. Score: 1

According to Chinese (mainland) national standard, only the [metric prefix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix) "mega-" (for 106) is 兆, while a trillion (1012) should always be 万亿, never 兆.

e.g. 一兆字节 (or 一兆 for short) means one megabyte (1 MB), and 一兆赫 means one megahertz (1 MHz).

<http://zjj.beijing.gov.cn/wsbs/infoview.asp?ViewID=50494>

> 10的6次方 兆 M
>
> 10的4次方称为万，10的8次方称为亿，10的12次方称为万亿

---

In Taiwan, most people use 兆 for 1012.


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2018-04-14. Score: 1

I am a Chinese PhD student studying computer science and communication engineering in London.
I guess I might be the right person to give you the answer.  
兆 is usually used in IT context. If you use 万亿 in the context of IT, that would be weird. Except this, you can use 万亿 all the time.

> **Comments:**
> **username_7**: This is incorrect. In computer science context, 兆 is only used for Megabytes, where 兆 is a million, not a trillion. This is consistent with physics terms like Megahertz is called 兆赫 etc. In computer science, 一万亿 = 1 trillion is called 1T in Chinese.  
> **username_5**: 兆 is for the metric prefix "mega-" (for a million), such as 兆字节 (megabyte) and 兆赫 (megahertz). 万亿 is for a trillion. The metric prefix for a trillion is 太 (tera-), such as 太字节 (terabyte).  
> **username_6**: Indeed, it is a trillion, not a million.  

---

### Answer by username_8 on 2019-11-29. Score: 0

Mainland China:

> 91 2513 0522 6915 0159 = 91亿2513万522亿6915万159 (91亿亿)
>
> 1 MB = 1兆字节

Taiwan:

> 91 2513 0522 6915 0159 = 91京2513兆522亿6915万159
>
> 1 MB = 1百万字节


---

### Answer by username_9 on 2018-04-15. Score: 0

Number over five digitals, namely beyond 萬, there are several ways of counting. 億兆京 has several interpretations. This causes discrepancy in meaning. In tradition, to avoid ambiguity, 萬萬, 十萬萬, 百萬萬, 千萬萬, 萬萬萬, 十萬萬萬... is used instead.

There are three interpretation of 一兆.

1. 一百萬 = 10⁶. Current it is found in some Chinese prefix of SI Units. 1 MHz = 一兆赫.
2. 一萬萬萬 = 10¹². Big numbers count in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
3. 一萬萬萬萬 = 10¹⁶.


---

### Answer by username_10 on 2018-04-14. Score: 0

我想你大概不小心把“兆开”写错了，你应该是想写‘召开’。

如今很少有人用兆来表示百万，我们更习惯直接说百万。兆现在是网络流量或电量的单位。

zdic.net 　3. 数名，等于百万（古代指万亿）：兆周（电磁波频率单位，每秒一百万周的频率为一兆周）。

Nowadays, I hear not, many people write 兆, except when you want to express an extremely large amount.

> **Comments:**
> **username_11**: I've edited the question to correct the typo you mentioned.  
> **username_10**: Sorry to trouble you, gf is somewhat pedantic! She complained.  

---

