里 joins 田 (field) with 土 (earth) — a place that has fields and ground, that is, a village where people settle. From there it also became a unit of distance between villages, the "li."

Mandarin: lǐ, 3rd tone. In modern Chinese 里 is a distance unit (1 li = 500 m), and through simplification it merged with 裏 (inside), so it also means "in / inside" — 里面 (lǐmiàn, inside), 这里 (zhèlǐ, here), 哪里 (nǎlǐ, where). It is a core character, ranked 50th in frequency.

Japanese: on-reading リ (ri), kun さと (sato). 里 (sato, one's home village), 里帰り (satogaeri, a visit to one's parental home), 郷里 (kyōri, native place). The old Japanese 一里 (ichiri) was about 3.9 km. さと is common in Japanese women's names.

Korean hanja-sound "ri / i": 洞里 (dongni, village), 里長 (ijang, village head), 千里 (cheolli, a thousand li), 萬里 (malli, ten thousand li). 里 is the smallest unit of Korean administrative geography, sitting below 面. The old 十里 (simni) is about 4 km.

Memory aid: earth (土) beneath a field (田) — a human village where there are fields and ground.