开 kāi begin; open
Made up of [一 yī one radical 1, 廾 gǒng two hands radical 55]Alternative traditional form of character: 開
Made with 4 strokes.
Simplified picture of a barred gateway, originally had two hands lifting the bar to open the gate
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 一 yī component: 百 bǎi (hundred) 丙 bǐng (third in order) ; 不 bù (no; not) ; 丑 chǒu (shameful) ; 旦 dàn (dawn) ; 德 dé (virtue) ; 画 huà (to draw) ; 或 huò (maybe) ; 疆 jiāng (border) ; 丽 lì (beautiful) ; 两 liǎng (pair) ; 蒙 měng (Mongol) ; 灭 miè (to extinguish) ; 且 qiě (and) ; 世 shì (life) ; 与 yǔ (to give) ; 再 zài (again) ; 正 zhèng (correct)
Also uses 廾 gǒng component: 廿 niàn (twenty) 算 suàn (calculate) ; 异 yì (different)
Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Stroke order for character 开, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license ➚
Cities
开封 Kaifeng, HenanProverbs
迟开的花未必不香 chí kāi de huā wèi bì bú xiāng It's never too late to try something new开门见山 kāi mén jiàn shān To come straight to the point. Avoid procrastination
鸣锣开道 míng luó kāi dao To publicize an event
网开一面 wǎng kāi yī miàn To give someone a chance of escape
开天辟地 kāi tiān pì dì The beginning of a great task. In one creation myth Pangu set about his momentous work by first separating heaven (yang) from earth (yin). An epic undertaking
开卷有益 kāi juàn yǒu yì There is always something new to be learned from books. An admonishment to keep on studying and learning.