南 nán south
Made up of [十 shí ten; 10 radical 24, 冂 jiōng covering box radical 13]Made with 9 strokes.
Possibly from a picture of a front of a house - these always pointed south
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 十 shí component: 半 bàn (half) 德 dé (virtue) ; 盾 dùn (shield) ; 古 gǔ (ancient) ; 华 huá (splendid) ; 卖 mài (sell) ; 啤 pí (hops) ; 什 shén (what) ; 午 wǔ (noon) ; 载 zài (to carry) ; 早 zǎo (early) ; 直 zhí (straight) ; 支 zhī (to support)
Also uses 冂 jiōng component: 冈 gāng (ridge) 见 jiàn (see) ; 丽 lì (beautiful) ; 两 liǎng (pair) ; 内 nèi (inner) ; 尚 shàng (still) ; 商 shāng (commerce) ; 同 tóng (same) ; 网 wǎng (net) ; 雨 yǔ (rain) ; 再 zài (again) ; 周 zhōu (circuit)
Sounds same
男 nán (male) ; 难 nán (difficult)Pronunciation
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Provinces
海南 Hainan河南 Henan
湖南 Hunan
云南 Yunnan
Cities
淮南 Huainan, Anhui南宁 Nanning, Guangxi
南阳 Nanyang, Henan
南通 Nantong, Jiangsu
南京 Nanjing, Jiangsu
南昌 Nanchang, Jiangxi
济南 Jinan, Shandong
南充 Nanchong, Sichuan
南平 Nanping, Fujian
南安 Nan'an, Fujian
Proverbs
天南地北 tiān nán dì běi Places or opinions that are very far apart南柯一梦 nán kē yī mèng An absurdly ambitious plan divorced from reality. A dream of grandeur and splendor.
南辕北辙 nán yuán běi zhé Doing the opposite of what was intended. The carriage points one way but the ruts in the road force it to go the other way. A foolish and futile plan.