东 東 dōng

+ A LITTLE MORE +

• 东西 (dōng xī) East and West

• 东西 (dōng xi) Stuff / Thing – "xi" is pronounced neutral. This is the most commonly used word for "something – in general", be it My stuff (我的东西) His things (他的东西), Buy some stuff (买点东西), Eat something (吃点东西)...... so on and so forth.

• 东道主 (dōng dào zhǔ) Host Literal. East(side of the) road owner In ancient formalities, the host of a house or an event is usually seated or situated on the Eastern side (as opposed to the guests on the Western side). Today, this term is generally used during international sports events to mean "Hosting country".

• 做东 (zuò dōng) Host of a party, gathering or game Literal. Be host – derived from (3. to mean someone "is the host" or "becomes the host"

• 房东 (fáng dōng) Landlord Literal. House East – Interestingly in modern lingo, this colloquial term has superseded the formal term of House owner (房主)

In many phrases, 东 and 西 are added as an emphasis to mean "here and there". For examples:

• 东歪西倒 (dōng wāi xī dǎo) Sway around Literal. Here slant there fallen over – often used to describe a drunk person being "unable to walk straight" or swaying trees in a typhoon.
• 东翻西找 (dōng fān xī zhǎo) Looking high and low (for something) Literal. Here rummage there search
• 东放西放 (dōng fàng xī fàng) Leaving things around hastily Literal. Here put there put – colloquial phrase to mean "putting things around without sufficient consideration"
• 东看看西看看 (dōng bēn xī zǒu) Random browsing Literal. Here look see there look see – a colloquial phrase often to mean "window shopping" or "aimless wandering without any specific purpose in mind"

+ NAMES TO NOTE +

• 东南亚 (dōng nán yà) South East Asia Literal. Eastern South Asia
• 东京 (dōng jīng) Tokyo Literal. East capital
• 山东 (shān dōng) Shandong Literal. Mountain East
• 广东 (guǎng dōng) Guangdong Literal. Vast East – also known as Canton
• 广东话 (guǎng dōng huà) Cantonese Literal. Vast East language

+ PERSONAL NOTE +

In English, cardinal directions commonly start with North – followed by East, South and West. Occasionally, people might say "North- South-East-West".

In Chinese, however, the first direction will always start in the direction of the sunrise as well as the geographical position of China. Hence, the sequence is referred to as East-South-West-North (东南西北) or East-West-South-North (东西南北).