北 běi north
Made up of [匕 bǐ spoon; ladle radical 21]Used as component 北 in :乘 chéng
Made with 5 strokes.
Possibly two people sitting back to back - suggesting back away from the sunny south
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 匕 bǐ component: 此 cǐ (this) 化 huà (to make into) 华 huá (splendid) 花 huā (flower) 老 lǎo (venerable) 呢 ne (and you?) 能 néng (to be able to) 死 sǐ (die) 它 tā (it)
Different tone
杯 bēi (cup) 贝 bèi (shell)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Provinces
北京 Beijing河北 Hebei
湖北 Hubei
Cities
淮北 Huaibei, Anhui北京 Beijing City, Beijing
北海 Beihai, Guangxi
北安 Bei'an, Heilongjiang
Proverbs
天南地北 tiān nán dì běi Places or opinions that are very far apart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.