Meanings
- uncountableA large and packed crowd of people.
Jenny was lost among people mountain people sea. I don't blame her in such a gunvernment celebration.
2019, Changming Yuan, “Trade Deficit: Chinese Exported into English”, in T. R. Mwanaka, editor, Nationalism: (mis)understanding Donald Trump's Capitalism, Racism, Global Politics, International Trade and Media Wars, volume 2, →ISBN2 more examples
However, this rule seems to have been overturned in the PRC with its "people mountain people sea" strategy that played an important role in the successful exploration of mining resources, assisted by advanced technologies and heavy investments (see fig 1.5 for another example of this strategy in action).
2020 October 26, Li Hou, Building for Oil: Daqing and the Formation of the Chinese Socialist State, BRILL, →ISBN, page 19I didn't want to be part of Shanghai. I preferred to be an obscure visitor in Shanghai with nobody noticing me. I was fascinated by its noise and the people mountain, people sea.
2023 May 4, Wenyan Lu, The Funeral Cryer, Atlantic Books, →ISBN
Origin
- Chinese人山人海
- Englishpeople mountain people sea
Calque of Chinese 人山人海 (rénshānrénhǎi).
More words from Chinese
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
people mountain people sea. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/people%20mountain%20people%20sea
“people mountain people sea.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/people%20mountain%20people%20sea. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “people mountain people sea,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/people%20mountain%20people%20sea.
Source: people mountain people sea on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.