Several parts combine into one character.

走 in oracle bone script shows a person at the top with arms swinging in motion, atop 止 (a foot) at the bottom — unmistakably the picture of running. And yet 走 contains one of the most famous false friends in the entire CJK family. The character means RUN in Korean and Japanese, but it means WALK in modern Mandarin. The same picture, two different speeds, depending on which country you're reading in.

The historical drift: in Classical Chinese, 走 originally did mean "to run" (matching its pictorial origin). At some point during medieval Chinese, the meaning shifted from "run fast" to merely "go on foot," and finally to "walk." Japan and Korea borrowed the character earlier and froze the original "run" meaning, while Mandarin's living usage drifted. Today, modern Chinese expresses "to run" with an entirely different character, 跑 (pǎo).

Korean reading "ju." Always means "run / fast motion": 走行 (juhaeng, driving / running), 疾走 (jiljju, sprinting), 脫走 (talju, escape / desertion), 暴走 (pokju, runaway / out-of-control rush), 競走 (gyeongju, race). A car's "mileage" in Korean is 走行距離 (juhaeng-geori).

Mandarin zǒu, 3rd tone — and this is where the false friend trips everyone. 走路 (zǒulù) = "to walk down the road," NOT "to run." 走开 (zǒukāi) = "go away, scram." 走出 (zǒuchū) = "to walk out." The Chinese verb for "to run" is 跑 (pǎo): 跑步 (pǎobù, jogging / running), 跑车 (pǎochē, sports car), 长跑 (chángpǎo, long-distance running). A Chinese reader looking at a Korean billboard for a sports car saying 走行性能 ("running performance") would parse it as "walking performance" — a baffling sentence about pedestrians.

Japanese on-reading ソウ (sō) — 走行 (sōkō, running / driving), 競走 (kyōsō, race / competition), 暴走 (bōsō, runaway). Kun-reading はしる (hashiru, to run) — 走る is one of the most common verbs in spoken Japanese, used both literally (子供が走る, the child runs) and metaphorically (電車が走る, the train runs).

Memory aid: in Korea and Japan, 走 is "run." In China, 走 is "walk" — modern Chinese uses 跑 for "run." One of the most famous CJK false friends.

In Japan·走 = run (走る hashiru)

In China·走 = walk (走 zǒu) — to run is 跑 (pǎo)