Pyeong
| Pyeong | |||||||||||||
 Listing outside a Korean real-estate agency showing floorspace in square meters and pyeong | |||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 坪 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||||
| Hangul | 평 | ||||||||||||
| Hanja | 坪 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Japanese name | |||||||||||||
| Kanji | 坪 | ||||||||||||
| Kana | つぼ | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
A pyeong (abbreviation py) is a Korean unit of area and floorspace, equal to a square kan or 36 square Korean feet. The ping and tsubo are its equivalent Chinese and Japanese units, similarly based on a square bu (ja:步) or ken, equivalent to 36 square Chinese or Japanese feet.[1][2]
Ping
In mainland China, the metrification of traditional units would produce a ping of 4 m², but it is almost unknown with most real estate floorspace simply reckoned in square meters. The longer length of the Hong Kong foot produces a larger ping of almost 5 m², but it is similarly uncommon. On Taiwan, the ping remains in fairly common use but owing to its long occupation it has been standardized to the Japanese foot rather than the Chinese.
Tsubo
In Japan, the usual measure of real estate floorspace is the tatami and the tsubo is reckoned as two tatami. The tatami varies by region but the modern standard is usually taken to be the Nagoya tatami of about 1.653 m², producing a tsubo of 3.306 m². It is sometimes reckoned as comprising 10 gō.
Pyeong
In Korea, the period of Japanese occupation produced a pyeong of 400/121 or 3.3058 m². It is the standard traditional measure for real estate floorspace, with an average house reckoned as about 25 pyeong, a studio apartment as 8–12 py, and a garret as 1½ py. In South Korea, the unit has been officially banned since 1961 but with little effect prior to the criminalization of its commercial use effective 1 July 2007.[3] Informal use continues, however, including in the form of real estate use of unusual fractions of meters equivalent to unit amounts of pyeong.