HSK 3.0 · LEVEL 1
开
to open, to start, to turn on, to drive (a vehicle)
Free Chinese vocabulary flashcard · HSK 1
Why does 开 look like this?
Originally, this character represented two hands lifting a horizontal bar to 'open' a gate. Today, it is simplified and looks like the 'two' (二) radical on top of a 'vertical stroke' (丨) and a 'slanted stroke' (丿), resembling a gate being unlocked or a path being cleared!