Picul is the English word for a traditional Chinese measurement of weight called dàn (擔) in Mandarin Chinese or tam (擔)[1] in Cantonese language.
One picul is 100 catty. In Hong Kong, one picul is equivalent to 60.478982 kilogramme[1], and in ordinance 22 of 1884, one picul is 1331⁄3 lb. avoir. The picul was the standard load for a human carrier of burdens (i.e. a unit of weight similar to the 60 kg bags raw coffee is currently shipped in which are often still handled by humans).
Prior to the switchover to the metric system, countries in South-East Asia such as Brunei and Malaysia also used the Pikul and the Kati.
References
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