开天辟地 (kāi tiān pì dì)

Character breakdown

• 开 (kāi) · 4 strokes

  Simplified form of 開. Pictograph of two hands (廾) opening the bolt (一) on a door (門). The traditional component 門 was removed for simplification.

• 天 (tiān) · 4 strokes

  Depicts a person (大) with an emphasized head. Based on the original meaning "head". The meaning later shifted to "top", "high", and "sky".

• 辟 (bì) · 13 strokes

  Depicts punishing a kneeling person (卩) with a curved knife (䇂).

• 地 (de) · 6 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 也 represents the sound.

Usage

对于这个偏远山村来说，通高铁是开天辟地头一回的大事。

For this remote mountain village, the arrival of the high-speed rail is an epoch-making event, happening for the very first time.

Duì yú zhè gè piān yuǎn shān cūn lái shuō, tōng gāo tiě shì kāi tiān pì dì tóu yī huí de dà shì.