Chinese units of measurement in the context of "Chinese numerals"

The foot (standard symbol: ft) is a unit of length in the British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. The prime symbol, ′, is commonly used to represent the foot. In both customary and imperial units, one foot comprises 12 inches, and one yard comprises three feet. Since an international agreement in 1959, the foot is defined as equal to exactly 0.3048 meters. The most common plural of foot is feet. However, the singular form may be used like a plural when it is preceded by a number, as in "that man is six foot tall".

Historically, the "foot" was a part of many local systems of units, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, French, and English systems. It varied in length from country to country, from city to city, and sometimes from trade to trade. Its length was usually between 250 mm (9.8 in) and 335 mm (13.2 in) and was generally, but not always, subdivided into twelve inches or 16 digits.

Li or ri (Chinese: 里, lǐ, or 市里, shìlǐ), also known as the Chinese mile, is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. The li has varied considerably over time but was usually about one third of an English mile and now has a standardized length of a half-kilometer (500 meters or 1,640 feet or 0.311 miles). This is then divided into 1,500 chi, or "Chinese feet".

The character 里 combines the characters for "field" (田, tián) and "earth" (土, tǔ), since it was considered to be about the length of a single village. As late as the 1940s, a "li" did not represent a fixed measure but could be longer or shorter depending on the effort required to cover the distance. This traditional unit, in terms of historical usage and distance proportion, can be considered the East Asian counterpart to the Western league unit. However, in English league commonly means "3 miles."

Traditional Japanese units of measurement or the shakkanhō (尺貫法) is the traditional system of measurement used by the people of the Japanese archipelago. It is largely based on the Chinese system, which spread to Japan and the rest of the Sinosphere in antiquity. It has remained mostly unaltered since the adoption of the measures of the Tang dynasty in 701. Following the 1868 Meiji Restoration, Imperial Japan adopted the metric system and defined the traditional units in metric terms on the basis of a prototype metre and kilogram. The present values of most Korean and Taiwanese units of measurement derive from these values as well.

For a time in the early 20th century, the traditional, metric, and English systems were all legal in Japan. Although commerce has since been legally restricted to using the metric system, the old system is still used in some instances. The old measures are common in carpentry and agriculture, with tools such as chisels, spatels, saws, and hammers manufactured in sun and bu sizes. Floorspace is expressed in terms of tatami mats, and land is sold on the basis of price in tsubo. Sake is sold in multiples of 1 gō, with the most common bottle sizes being 4 (720 mL) or 10 (1.8 L, isshōbin).

Liang (simplified Chinese: 两; traditional Chinese: 兩; pinyin: liǎng), or leung in Cantonese, liae in Wenzhounese, liong in Hakka, lian in Shanghainese, also called "Chinese ounce" or "tael", is a traditional Chinese unit for weight measurement. It originated in China before being introduced to neighboring countries in East and Southeast Asia.

Modern standards for the liang include 1/10 jin (50 grams) in mainland China, 37.5 grams in Taiwan, Korea and Thailand,37.799 grams in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and 37.8 grams in Vietnam.

Korean units of measurement, called cheokgwan-beop (Korean: 척관법; Hanja: 尺貫法) or cheokgeun-beop (척근법; 尺斤法) in Korean, is the traditional system of measurement used by the people of the Korean peninsula. It is largely based on the Chinese system, with influence from Japanese standards imposed following its annexation of the Korean Empire in 1910. Both North and South Korea currently employ the metric system. Since 2007, South Korea has criminalized the use of Korean units in commercial contexts, but informal use continues, especially of the pyeong as a measure of residential and commercial floorspace. North Korea continues to use the traditional units, although their standards are now derived from metric conversions.