人山人海

rén shān rén hǎi

literal meaning: people mountain people sea
translated: huge crowds of people; a sea of people

This idiom is used to describe places that are extremely crowded and congested. While both the idiom 人山人海 and its component 人海 can both be translated as "a sea of faces", the former is used in specific situations to describe large, dense crowds while the latter is used metaphorically to evoke a sense of vastness and homogeneity.

This idiom is used to describe places that are extremely crowded and congested. While both the idiom 人山人海 and its component 人海 can both be translated as "a sea of faces", the former is used in specific situations to describe large, dense crowds while the latter is used metaphorically to evoke a sense of vastness and homogeneity.

人

rén

person, people

山

shān

mountain

人海

rénhǎi

sea of people

人

rén

person, people

海

hǎi

sea, big lake

Examples

朴树 - 平凡之路

Pu Shu - The Ordinary Road

我曾经跨过山和大海, 也穿过人山人海

Wǒ céngjīng kuàguò shān hé dàhǎi, yě chuānguò rénshān-rénhǎi

I once crossed mountains and vast oceans, and passed through seas of people

In this lyric, the singer describes the journeys of his past. Use of the idiom allows for parallelism--the singer crossed real mountains and seas, and also passed crowds, or "seas" of people. The "crowds" here may be a metaphorical way in which the singer remembers the countless people from from his past.