The language of any ethnic group contains stable figurative locutions with a holistic meaning. The phraseological structure is the treasury of each word. Over the years, the fixed phrase becomes a typical unit. This study aims to compare phraseological units containing symbolic meanings of animals in Chinese and Russian languages and identify their connotations. The zoonyms with national-cultural connotations were distinguished against the background of Russian and Chinese phraseology based on a linguistic and regional approach. People often use zoonyms in their speech as part of phraseological turns because the direct meanings of these lexical units have plentiful opportunities for the development of connotations. Zoonyms are associated with many ideas about the traits of a human character that are inherent in animals initially. Russian and Chinese phraseological phrases have similar features. Standard features include 1. Complex structure. 2. Invariable form. 3. The essence of the statement is metaphorical. The distinctive features are the following: 1. Russian phraseological units are not strictly limited, sometimes as a spoken language. 2. Chinese phraseological units usually consist of four hieroglyphs and do not include proverbs, sayings, and aphorisms. For example, the lexical unit "bear". Bear is a positive image in the Russian nation. The Russians like the clumsy appearance and honest character of the bear: "The owner is in the house, that the bear is in the forest", "The bear does not wash, but lives healthy". In China, the most important symbolic meaning of bears is clumsy and stupid. (Idiom) "鱼和熊掌不可兼得," literal translation: a fish and a bear's paw cannot have both. This metaphor means that people can't be too greedy. The allegorical saying "黑瞎子叫门-熊到家了 a black blind man (the name of the bear in the northeastern dialect of China) is used to indicate cowardice. In Russian and Chinese, there are many phraseological units with animal names. However, they differ significantly from each other in terms of meaning. It reflects the difference in the cultural code of peoples that developed due to various environmental conditions, culture, and traditions.