Chinese idiom · 成语
车水马龙
Meaning
Carts like water, horses like dragons; bustling traffic.
Character by character
Origin and story
Historical accountDongguan Han Ji (東觀漢記), in its account of Empress Ma, records her opposition to granting honors to relatives without sufficient merit. Recalling the stream of visitors to her family, she describes the carriages as flowing water and the horses as a moving dragon. Their busy entrance demonstrates the influence and display surrounding the imperial relatives.
Instead of making an angry public scene, she says she stopped their allowance in hopes of checking this behavior. The image also appears in the Hou Han Shu tradition. The later four-character idiom keeps the impression of continuous, crowded movement, usually describing busy roads or a lively urban scene.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
每到下班时间，商场门前就车水马龙，很难打到车。
At the end of the workday, traffic streams past the shopping mall and taxis are hard to get.
For heavy continuous traffic and bustle, not simply a large crowd indoors.