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How to write 楼 (lóu, “house with more than 1 story”)

楼 (lóu), an HSK 2 character, means “house with more than 1 story”, “storied building” and “floor”. It is HSK 2 in the 2025 syllabus, up from level 1 in the 2021 standard. The traditional form is 樓, 15 strokes instead of 13. On its own it is an HSK 2 word; it also forms 楼梯 (“stair”), 楼道 (“corridor”) and 酒楼 (“restaurant”). Japanese reads it rou, “watchtower”, as a JLPT N1 kanji.

Pinyin
lóu
Strokes
13
HSK
2
Radical
木 (“tree”)
Traditional
樓

Stroke by stroke

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13

As a left-right character it splits into 木 (“tree”, the radical), strokes 1–4; 娄 (“one of the 28 lunar mansions in Chinese astronom”), strokes 5–13, written the left part first.

  1. leftrightwards
  2. top leftdownwards
  3. leftdown and left
  4. leftdown and right
  5. Dottopa dot
  6. top rightdown and right → down and left
  7. toprightwards
  8. topdown and right → downwards
  9. topdown and left
  10. top rightdown and right
  11. centerdownwards → down and right
  12. rightdown and left → leftwards
  13. centerrightwards

Names of the strokes

Japanese and Chinese

The two models differ in shape, so our comparison does not claim an order; compare the numbered frames yourself (13 strokes in Japanese, 13 strokes in Chinese).

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Japanese · KanjiVG · 13 strokes
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Chinese · Make Me a Hanzi · 13 strokes

Traditional form

Simplified
楼 · 13 strokes
Traditional
樓 · 15 strokes · see its strokes

Simplified vs traditional

Trace it

Follow the numbers. Tracing help

Pinyin and meaning

PinyinMeaningsTraditionalIn words
lóu
second tone		house with more than 1 story; storied building; floor樓楼梯 楼道 酒楼 阁楼
HSK 2025 syllabus
level 2
2021 standard
level 1
HSK 2.0
in a level 3 word
Words with it
91 in CC-CEDICT

Words with 楼

WordPinyinMeaning
楼 樓lóuhouse with more than 1 story; storied building HSK 2
楼梯 樓梯lóutīstair; staircase HSK 3
楼道 樓道lóudàocorridor; passageway HSK 6
酒楼 酒樓jiǔlóurestaurant HSK 7-9
阁楼 閣樓gélóugarret; loft HSK 7-9
上楼 上樓shànglóuto go upstairs
下楼 下樓xiàlóuto go downstairs
大楼 大樓dàlóubuilding (a relatively large, multistory one)
小楼 小樓xiǎolóusmall multi-story building; modest house with two or more floors
楼上 樓上lóushàngupstairs

HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).

Practice sheet

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Keep going

HSK 2, in list order: