白菜, photo 1 of 3
白菜, photo 2 of 3
白菜, photo 3 of 3

Photo credit

Photo
Napa Cabbage
By
SarKaLay စာကလေး
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Source
Wikimedia Commons
Changes
Cropped and resized

Photo credit

Photo
Starr 070730-7855 Brassica rapa
By
Forest & Kim Starr
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Source
Wikimedia Commons
Changes
Cropped and resized

Photo credit

Photo
Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis 'Manoko' kz01
By
Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Source
Wikimedia Commons
Changes
Cropped and resized

白菜

báicài
noun #23,622

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 Chinese cabbage
  2. 2 napa cabbage

About the ingredient

蔬菜 Vegetables · In season: autumn and winter

Usually oblong, pale heads of crinkly leaves on thick white ribs, mild in taste. It is stewed, stir-fried, cooked in soup with tofu, and fermented into 酸菜 in the northeast. In Cantonese the same word means bok choy.

Also called  大白菜

Examples

HSK 3
Dōngtiān de báicài tèbié tián.
Winter cabbage is especially sweet.
HSK 4
Wǒ xiǎng mǎi liǎng kē báicài.
I want to buy two cabbages.
HSK 7-9
Báicài dùn dòufu shì dōngběi míngcài.
Stewed cabbage with tofu is a famous Northeast Chinese dish.

Tips

culture
白菜价 (literally 'cabbage price') is used to describe something very cheap, since cabbage is one of the cheapest vegetables in China.
usage
In northern China, families traditionally stockpile 白菜 for winter, a practice called 冬储大白菜.

Stroke Order

白 bái
菜 cài