人去楼空
rén qù lóu kōng
the people have gone and the place stands empty
Character by character
人rén
people
people
去qù
gone
gone
楼lóu
building
building
空kōng
empty
empty
Example
我们赶到那家培训机构时，那里早已人去楼空，只剩下几张旧桌子。
By the time we got to the tutoring school it had long been deserted; only a few old desks were left.
Tone: neutral.
Usage and origin
It echoes the Tang poet 崔颢’s 《黄鹤楼》 (昔人已乘黄鹤去，此地空余黄鹤楼), and in literary writing it still carries the sadness of returning to a place whose people are gone. In the news it describes a firm, shop or school whose staff have vanished overnight, often right after 卷款潜逃.
Learn this in Lesson 188 · HSK 7–9: P2P的兴衰 (The rise and fall of P2P lending)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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