归根

to return home (after a lifetime's absence) / to go back to one's roots

surname Gui

to return / to go back to / to give back to / (of a responsibility) to be taken care of by / to belong to / to gather together / (used between two identical verbs) despite / to marry (of a woman) (old) / division on the abacus with a one-digit divisor

root / basis / classifier for long slender objects, e.g. cigarettes, guitar strings / CL:條|条[tiao2] / radical (chemistry)

in the final analysis / ultimately

after all / in the final analysis / ultimately

a falling leaf returns to the roots (idiom); everything has its ancestral home / In old age, an expatriate longs to return home.

see 樹高千丈，葉落歸根|树高千丈，叶落归根[shu4 gao1 qian1 zhang4 , ye4 luo4 gui1 gen1]

variant of 歸根結底|归根结底[gui1 gen1 jie2 di3]

ultimately / in the final analysis / after all / when all is said and done

Getting Home, 2007 PRC comedy-drama film directed by 張揚|张扬[Zhang1 Yang2], starring 趙本山|赵本山[Zhao4 Ben3 shan1]

lit. a falling leaf returns to the roots (idiom) / fig. all things go back to their source eventually / in old age, an expatriate returns home

fig. a tree may grow a thousand zhang high, but its leaves return to their roots (proverb) / fig. everything has its ancestral home / in old age, an expatriate returns home

(idiom) in the final analysis