Choose a levelRead at your level
Every reading sits at the level where most of its words are taught
38 readings
Article · 3 min audio什么是春运？What is Chunyun, China’s Spring Festival travel rush?Over nine billion trips in forty days. One train ticket everyone wants. And a suitcase that goes home half full and comes back stuffed.HSK 6
Story · 1 min audio我在咖啡店门口How to take a taxi in ChineseOne sentence, practised ten times. Two coffee shops. A driver on the other side of the road.HSK 3
Article · 2 min audio广场舞为什么这么火？Why do Chinese aunties dance in public squares?After dinner, the music starts downstairs. Dozens of aunties, one small speaker, every step in time. Upstairs, not everyone is dancing.HSK 5
Article · 2 min audio双十一是怎么来的？Where did Singles Day come from?Four 1s in a row. A joke among single students in Nanjing that grew into China’s biggest shopping festival.HSK 4
Article · 3 min audio汉字没有字母，中国人怎么打字？How do Chinese people type without an alphabet?Thousands of characters. The same twenty-six keys as English. How Chinese gets typed, looked up and put in order, and why so many people forget how to write it by hand.HSK 6
Story series · Chapter 1 of 10 · 2 min audio欢迎光临The first night shiftA student who can’t sleep takes the night shift at a corner shop called Always Here. Every night at three, while he unloads the van, someone leaves a note at the till and gives him marks. Nobody is ever there.HSK 5
Story · 1 min audio五个中文词My first day in ChinaOne flight. One notebook. Five Chinese words. Will they be enough for her first day in China?HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio奶奶的新手机Grandma’s new phoneA new phone. Ten calls in one day. Then nothing at all.HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio我要去机场I want to go to the airportSeven in the morning. One taxi, one rushed traveller. The driver has one simple question.HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio路口的小商店Shopping in Chinese at the corner shopA corner shop owner who knows what everyone buys. A regular who orders something new. A birthday cake, and a small surprise.HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio地铁里的阿姨How to take the subway in ChinaHis first rush hour. A kind auntie who is going his way at every stop. A friend who isn't at Exit B.HSK 3
Article · 1 min audio只带了现金怎么办？How to pay with your phone in ChinaA 100-yuan note, a watermelon and a shop that can't give change. How China pays with a QR code, and whether cash still works.HSK 3
