King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “upstream”

上游
shàng yóu
upper reaches (of a river); upper level; upper echelon; upstream

The closest CC-CEDICT match for upstream is 上游 (shàng yóu), defined as: upper reaches (of a river); upper level; upper echelon; upstream.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

上 shàng
above, on top, superior; to go up; to attend; previous
radical 1 ⼀ · 3 strokes
游 yóu
to wander, to travel, to tour, to roam
radical 85 ⽔ · 12 strokes

Other Chinese words for “upstream”

WordPinyinMeaning
逆水nì shuǐagainst the current; upstream

Related words

Other words that share a character with 上游.

WordPinyinMeaning
以上yǐ shàngthat level or higher; that amount or more; the above-mentioned
晚上wǎn shangevening; night
身上shēn shangon the body; at hand
加上jiā shàngto add; plus; in addition; moreover
上面shàng miànon top of; above-mentioned
实际上 (實際上)shí jì shàngin fact; in reality
游戏 (遊戲)yóu xìgame (场 (chǎng)); to play
旅游 (旅遊)lǚ yóutrip; journey

See also: Japanese symbol for “upstream”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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