The Flying Fish 鹏程万里

The Chinese idiom 鹏程万里 (peng2 cheng2 wan4 li3) literally means the long journey of the magical fish-bird. This Chinese idiom comes from the Chinese classic 《庄子》.

once upon a time in the northern sea there lived a gigantic fish called Kun (鲲 kun1). Kun had massive fins that allowed it to swim vast distances through water. Furthermore, Kun could change itself into an enormous bird called Peng (鹏 peng2). This bird was said to have such a huge wing span that when it spread its wings, it looked like clouds in the sky. With such big wings, Peng could fly over long distances without stopping. It could, for example, fly from the northern sea to the southern sea on the other side of the globe with a single flap of its wings. In fact, it could soar so high that it could reach the heavens. Given its capabilities to travel by sea and air, there was no stopping wher this magical creature could go.

The Chinese use this idiom to talk about someone who has great prospects of success and virtually no limit to what they can achieve. In English, we would say that such a personhas a bright future or that thesky is the limit for them. The second English idiom alludes to the fact that the sky has no limit.