U+8856 "衖" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character

U+8856 "衖" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Chinese character that historically refers to a lane, alley, or a small side street, often found in older urban layouts. It is closely related to the more common character "巷" (xiàng), which also means lane or alley, but "衖" carries a slightly more archaic or literary nuance and has specific usage in compound terms and traditional place names. In modern Chinese, it appears less frequently than its counterpart, yet it remains a recognized part of the CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) unified ideograph set, used in classical texts and certain regional contexts to denote narrow passageways within cities or between buildings.