The li () in Mandarin, or lei in Cantonese, is a traditional Chinese unit of length. One li equals 10 hao, 1/10 of a fen, 1/1000 of a chi, or 1/3 mm in China.
This law of length measurement was issued by the Chinese government in 1929, and has been effective since 1 January 1930. The base unit chi is defined to be 1/3 meter.
These units are based on the metric system. The Chinese word for metre is mÃÂ, which can take the Chinese standard SI prefixes (for "kilo-", "centi-", etc.). A kilometre, however, may also be called gà ÂnglÃÂ, i.e. a metric lÃÂ. In the engineering field, traditional units are rounded up to metric units.