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At a fruit stall in China, the price on the sign isn’t per kilo. It’s per jin, and that small word changes the math.
In mainland China, one jin (斤) is 0.5 kilograms, so to convert jin to kg, divide by 2. Ten jin is 5 kg. One hundred jin is 50 kg. That’s the whole trick, and it works for everything from mangoes to body weight to the numbers on a Chinese size chart.
How to Convert Jin to kg
Divide the number of jin by 2, and you have kilograms. To go the other way, from kg to jin, multiply by 2.
If you think in pounds, one jin is about 1.1 lb. So a jin is a little heavier than a pound, and a kilo is exactly two jin.
The mainland customary unit is the shijin (市斤), equal to 500 grams. In 1959, China changed the old 16-liang jin to a decimal-friendly 10 liang per jin while keeping the jin at half a kilogram.
Jin to kg Conversion Chart
All conversions below use the mainland Chinese jin: 1 jin = 0.5 kg.
| Jin | Kilograms | Pounds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 jin | 0.5 kg | 1.1 lb |
| 3 jin | 1.5 kg | 3.3 lb |
| 10 jin | 5 kg | 11 lb |
| 18 jin | 9 kg | 19.8 lb |
| 25 jin | 12.5 kg | 27.6 lb |
| 80 jin | 40 kg | 88.2 lb |
| 85 jin | 42.5 kg | 93.7 lb |
| 90 jin | 45 kg | 99.2 lb |
| 95 jin | 47.5 kg | 104.7 lb |
| 100 jin | 50 kg | 110.2 lb |
| 108 jin | 54 kg | 119 lb |
| 110 jin | 55 kg | 121.3 lb |
| 120 jin | 60 kg | 132.3 lb |
| 135 jin | 67.5 kg | 148.8 lb |
| 150 jin | 75 kg | 165.3 lb |
| 200 jin | 100 kg | 220.5 lb |
| 600 jin | 300 kg | 661.4 lb |
| 800 jin | 400 kg | 881.8 lb |
| 1,000 jin | 500 kg | 1,102.3 lb |
| 10,000 jin | 5,000 kg | 11,023.1 lb |
Where You’ll Run Into Jin
China uses kilograms officially, but in everyday talk, jin is still hard to avoid. You’ll meet it in three places, mostly.
Markets and street stalls. Fruit, vegetables, meat, and snacks sold by weight are often priced per jin. A price that looks cheap is per half-kilo, so double it if you’re comparing with prices back home. Wander past the street food stalls and you’ll see the same thing with roasted chestnuts and sunflower seeds.
Body weight. When people in China mention their weight in conversation, it’s often in jin. It’s simply the everyday unit, the way many Americans think of body weight in pounds. So when a friend mentions 110 jin, that’s 55 kg.
Online shopping. Chinese size charts often suggest a size by weight in jin. If a chart says 100 to 120 jin fits a size L, that means 50 to 60 kg.
Jin, Liang, and Gongjin: Chinese Weight Units
Jin has a few relatives you’ll hear alongside it. These are the modern mainland units:
| Unit | Chinese | Equals |
|---|---|---|
| Liang | 两 (liǎng) | 50 g, or one tenth of a jin |
| Jin | 斤 (jīn) | 500 g, or 10 liang |
| Gongjin | 公斤 (gōngjīn) | 1 kg, or 2 jin |
| Ke | 克 (kè) | 1 gram |
Liang is the one that makes menus fun. In some dumpling and bun shops, especially in northern China, you still order by the liang: yi liang, er liang, san liang. But don’t expect one liang of finished food to weigh 50 grams. Traditionally, the liang refers to roughly 50 grams of dry flour used for the wrappers or dough, so the cooked portion with filling can weigh much more.
Gongjin, public jin, is simply the metric kilogram. You’ll see it on official forms, luggage scales, and gym equipment, while the jin keeps the markets.
Is a Jin the Same Everywhere?
Not quite. The 500-gram jin is the mainland standard.
Taiwan still uses a traditional jin of 600 grams, often called a Taiwan catty. Hong Kong’s catty is about 605 grams. If you’re buying tea or dried goods from a Taiwanese or Hong Kong seller, that extra fifth adds up, so check which jin the price means.
Jin in Chinese Sayings and Dramas
The jin shows up far beyond the market. Old texts, idioms, and period dramas are full of it.
Banjin baliang (半斤八两, half a jin, eight liang). Before the modern system, a jin had 16 liang, so half a jin and eight liang weighed exactly the same. The phrase means two things are equally good or, more often, equally bad. It’s the Chinese version of six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Que jin shao liang (缺斤少两, short a jin, missing a liang). It describes a scale that comes up light, and by extension anyone who quietly gives you less than you paid for, from a skimpy portion to a job only half done. It’s an everyday phrase, not a dusty one, and you’ll hear it any time someone feels shortchanged.
Jinjin jijiao (斤斤计较, counting every jin). Someone who fusses over tiny amounts, like the friend who splits the dinner bill down to the last cent.
Qianjin (千斤, a thousand jin). A thousand jin stands for something enormously heavy. A heavy responsibility is a qianjin zhongdan (千斤重担), a thousand-jin burden. And the car jack in your trunk is a qianjinding (千斤顶), literally a thousand-jin lifter.
In historical dramas and fantasy novels, heroes lift stones of a thousand jin or strike with ten thousand jin of force. The jin of those eras didn’t weigh the same as today’s 500 grams, so skip the calculator.
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