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Best 10 Free Chinese Reading Materials for Beginners to Learn to Read Mandarin

Everybody knows that learning Mandarin is no picnic. Not only are the pronunciation phonetics completely different from most Western languages, there is also the completely new aspect of learning to use the four tones. Of course, the one feature of Chinese which seems almost insurmountable for beginners to learn is reading Chinese characters.

What is the best way to learn to read Chinese?

The answer is simply to read as much as possible in Chinese. Practice reading good material at your correct level in Mandarin every day if you can. Soon all those characters which seemed impossible learn will become familiar. What is the correct level for you to practice reading Mandarin? Not too easy, not too hard. You are going to want to develop the skill of guessing at the meaning of words from the context. This is only possible if you hit the sweet spot of having to look up a maximum of one word every sentence or two. It’s also important to make clever use of the technological features which many modern Chinese reading websites offer such as pop-up dictionaries, audio files, turning on/off Pinyin and translation functions so that you can make your reading sessions even more effective.

How can beginners find good Chinese reading materials which are free of charge?

As most students soon discover, there are truly a wealth of materials available for Chinese reading practice such as websites or podcasts with transcripts. Many of these provide excellent, well-thought-out materials. Often, however, these offerings are only available for the price of a subscription, which puts them out of reach of many Mandarin learners, especially university students. Even for those learners who can afford to subscribe to one or two services, the costs will soon add up if they don’t begin to make choices. That’s why I have highlighted the best Chinese reading practice resources for beginners which are available free online in this article.

Excellent Chinese reading materials for beginners – and for more advanced students too:

1.     mandarin bean.

Mandarinbean.com lists a great variety of free Chinese reading materials, including very many Chinese articles for beginners. This site offers all of the best features that websites for Chinese reading practice can provide. These include a button to turn Pinyin on or off, a similar button to switch between traditional and simplified characters, a pop-up dictionary when you mouse over a word and finally a recording of the text made by a real person reading in a clear voice at a speed appropriate for the level. Additional, paid (about 30$/year) features include lesson notes and a translation of the text.

How to use Mandarin Bean for Chinese reading practice

This site offers so many possibilities for you to learn to read Chinese materials: Try reading first with the Pinyin on, then turn it off and read the text once again. Listen to the text while you read along. Give yourself a dictation exercise by pausing the recording to practice writing the characters. All of these methods have the advantage of activating different parts of your brain, which will make your Chinese reading practice much more effective.

2.     Chinese Reading Practice

Chinesereadingpractice.com provides interesting stories using simplified characters and offers most of the features of Mandarin Bean (pop-up dictionary, Pinyin on/off). There is no audio recording but in place of that you will find a side-by-side translation of the text which you can turn on or off as well as a very good explanation of key vocabulary before reading the text. Texts are available for all levels from beginner to HSK 6+. The beginner articles seem to be a bit more difficult than Mandarin Bean, perhaps more suitable to HSK2 learners. One thing I noticed is that this site hasn’t posted new stories since 2020.

How to use Chinese Reading Practice

Take advantage of the explanations of key vocabulary to prep yourself before you learn to read the Chinese materials. In addition, test your translation ability by turning on and off the translation feature.

3.     My Chinese Reading

Mychinesereading.com offers a very good but a slightly quirky selection including everything from stories about baby swallows to the regulations for football pitches. I love the selection of Chinese songs complete with lyrics and videos. You will find something for all levels, including true beginners’ Chinese reading materials . In other words, it’s worth taking a look at the articles just to see if something might strike your fancy. The site features pop-up definitions and a discussion of key words as well as translations of difficult sentences. Some of the reading texts have sound (authentic recording) but many do not. Recordings sound like they were not made in a studio and the tempo is often quite fast.

How to use My Chinese Reading

The various tempos, sound qualities, etc. of the recordings can be more challenging than typical slow “teacher language”, but you can use this to your advantage. Try listening to the recording first, then reading and studying the text and finally listening again.

4.  Hskreading.com

HSK Reading provides a huge bank of Chinese reading practice texts for all levels with a lot of content for beginners. The site features a pop-up dictionary. All of beginner Chinese reading texts and many of the more advanced ones are supplied with an authentic recording spoken at a slow tempo. The Chinese reading texts for beginners are also supplied with a translation which can be turned on or off.

How to use HSK Reading

These texts all tend to be on the short side, so they are perfect for a quick study. The recordings are also worth listening to on headphones since they are read in a clear, slow language.

5. The Chairman’s Bao

The Chairman’s Bao is not a free site but it does offer some free sample content which changes every week. This website offers a huge database of news articles expertly curated to match all HSK levels including countless Chinese articles for beginners. The articles feature all of the top technological features you would expect from a good site for Chinese reading practice (pinyin on/off, translation, professional audio recordings, etc) and moreover provides such excellent tools for each article as flashcards, Chinese character writing practice and text or audio testing. These tools are available for the free articles as well.

How beginners should use The Chairman’s Bao for the best Mandarin reading practice

Check the site/app frequently because the free articles will change very often. Once you find an article at your level (or below your level is also good because this promotes speed and fluency in reading Mandarin), use all the features such as flashcards, writing practice and tests to milk it for what it’s worth so that you can reinforce all the synergistic learning effects.

6. Chinese Class 101

Chineseclass101.com is also subscription based, but offers a lot of free resources, especially suitable for beginners. Check out their free list of key phrases which includes a nice feature of magnifying the Chinese characters to a huge size if you mouse over them. I especially like the free, printable “ Cheat sheets ” from this site covering a multitude of topics such as supermarkets, travel and romance.

How beginners can use Chinese Class 101 for your Mandarin reading practice

Test your Chinese reading ability by turning off the Pinyin when you read the key phrases in Chinese. Print out one of the “Cheat sheets” at a time and use it to study Chinese reading when you are on the go.

7. M Mandarin App

This unique app is not completely free, but seems to offer a bit of free content for all HSK levels, and quite a few for beginners. The app, uses the medium of comics/mangas to teach Chinese reading. Mangas, of course, would seem like the ideal way to practice reading Mandarin – after all, there are pictures to illustrate everything that is written. Most manga apps or online mangas, however, do not allow the reader to mark and copy words or sections of text so you can then look them up in an online dictionary, making the process of reading and translating quite cumbersome. This app solves that problem by offering all of the technical features (excellent audio, pop-up dictionaries, etc.) that facilitate the process of practicing Chinese reading and embedding them in the engaging format of comics. The reading is then reinforced by tests, exercises and a useful self-recording audio feature.

How to use M Mandarin

Try reading the content line by line and then listening to the audio. For the second reading, reverse the process and just listen to the audio as you look at the pictures and then read the text.

8. Chinese-Tools.com

While this site is outdated and cumbersome to use, I have included it because it has a good stock of beginner Chinese reading resources for students who are in their first few months of learning the language. You can’t turn off the Pinyin.

How to use Chinese-Tools

Go to this site if you are a true beginner and looking for some reading practice in addition to your textbook.

The last two sites offer some good reading materials, but they don’t supply the technical tools such as pop-up dictionaries which the other sites have. If you get stuck with your reading, remember you can always copy/paste text sections into such online translation tools as Google Translate or DeepL. There are also some excellent apps such as DuShu or Readibu which will convert your text into a format with pop-up dictionaries, translation, pinyin, even machine generated audio.

9. Yes! Chinese

Yes-chinese.com features a huge stock of nicely illustrated material which seems to be aimed at very young learners and there is also a lot of Chinese reading material which would suit complete beginners. Unfortunately, all of their nice features such as pop-up dictionaries and audio files won’t work because they are all powered by Flash, which is now out of date and no longer supported by Adobe. This site seems to be very well-designed, so there’s a good chance that they will update their features with more current technology.

How to use Yes! Chinese for effective Chinese reading practice

If you are a complete beginner, you can still use this site for Mandarin reading practice even if the Flash functions don’t work. I suggest working with your PC so that if you get stuck with a translation or need to see the Pinyin, you can open another tab with Google Translate, then copy the text section and paste it the program which will provide you with a translation and Pinyin transcription. Even the machine-generated audio isn’t as terrible as it used to be and will serve the purpose of modelling the correct pronunciation.

10. Ipanda.com

Finally, after all that reading, I suggest you take a break and venture into an authentic Chinese website that is all about – pandas! This features pictures and videos of pandas, pandacams at the various panda locations around the world. By reading the picture captions, you will be using a simple method to venture into an authentic Chinese reading experience. Feel free to use a translation program to help you!

How to use Ipanda.com

If you are a true beginner, try to see how often you can spot the word Panda 熊猫 (xióng māo) on the page! Basically, you can use this approach with any topic that interests you, such as cooking or sports. Use your knowledge of Chinese characters to do a search on the topic and see what results you get. In the beginning, use a translation program to help you.

Heather Buchanan-Schrader  

An unashamed language nerd from Anchorage, Alaska, Heather’s life has led her to a degree in German and International Studies from Willamette University and a three-year stay in Taiwan with her German husband at the end of the eighties. In Taipei she took intensive Chinese courses at the Mandarin Training Center of Taiwan Normal University and also taught English at the Taipei Language Institute. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, she became intrigued by the life in a former East Bloc country and finally decided to relocate to Leipzig, Germany in 1991. There she and her husband established the FAE Fachinstitut für Angewandtes Englisch, a private English institute focusing on teaching adults, translations and language coaching. This has been a successful venture for over 30 years.  

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Welcome to ChineseHSKreading.com, your go-to free resource for Mandarin reading practices! Please select your current Mandarin level below.

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What Is Chinese HSK reading?

ChineseHSKreading.com aims to provide its users free reading practices. Each text is written in Mandarin and English. Practice questions are also offered to test whether you truly understood the material. You can hover over or click on words you do not know to see the translation, this is offered to us by  mandarinspot.com .

At ChineseHSKreading.com, we understand that reading is an essential component of language learning. It not only expands vocabulary and improves grammar but also exposes learners to authentic language usage and cultural nuances. It also helps you practice with recognising Chinese characters. That’s why we have created this platform to provide you with a vast collection of reading materials at various proficiency levels.

Our mission is to make Chinese reading practicing accessible and enjoyable for learners of all backgrounds. Whether you are a beginner taking your first steps in learning Chinese or an advanced learner seeking to refine your language skills, we have carefully curated a range of texts for all levels.

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A better way of learning mandarin, the best chinese reading practice for beginners.

Learning to read Chinese is not a walk in the park. In fact, several factors make learning to read Chinese considerably harder than other languages. This doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, though, it just means that you need to find ways to meet those challenges. And of course, the best way to learn to read Chinese is to read more Chinese! Let’s have a look at the best Chinese reading practice resources for beginners! If you’re not a beginner, you should check out this article with Chinese reading practice recommendations for all levels .

6 challenges students face when learning to read Chinese and how to overcome them

Here’s a brief summary of the article linked to above if you don’t have time to read it (there’s a podcast episode too, though, so you can listen to it if you prefer):

• Challenge #1: Chinese is not alphabetic – In short, Chinese characters don’t represent sounds the way letters in an alphabet does. This means that you can’t use many of low-level reading skills you’ve acquired in other languages when learning to read Chinese. Thus, expect learning to take longer!
• Challenge #2: Understanding how Chinese characters work – There are several different types of characters, but most of them are compounds where one part indicates the sound and the other the meaning. These components themselves are simpler characters that usually started out as pictures.
• Challenge #3: Chinese reading is not an isolated skill – Reading ability comes more naturally if you have a foundation in the spoken language first, but in most courses and textbooks, you’re expected to learn to listen, speak, read and write all at the same time, which guarantees agonisingly slow progress.
• Challenge #4: Exposure and experience are important but elusive – In order to learn to read, you need to read a lot, but this is harder than it sounds for beginners, as texts you read will be too difficult and you’ll spend too much time struggling through challenging reading materials.
• Challenge #5: Reading is about more than the text itself –  Even if you do understand the characters, words and grammar in a sentence, you might still not understand the intended meaning or message. This is normal. Reading of authentic texts requires deep cultural knowledge and relies on information outside of the text itself.
• Challenge #6: Authentic Chinese texts are hard –  Text not specifically written for students will typically be much too difficult unless very carefully selected by a teacher. Even though it can be tempting to just try to power your way through authentic texts in this way, I strongly advise against it. Instead, stick to easier reading materials.

Finding suitable Chinese reading practice for beginners

For languages close to your own, diving into authentic texts can work, but it most certainly won’t for Chinese, or it at least it will be horribly inefficient. In fact, learners of Chinese spend way too much time reading way too little text. I mean that in the sense that much effort in spent on short, difficult texts, rather than more or longer texts at a more manageable level. You want as much extensive reading as possible .

An introduction to extensive reading for Chinese learners

The problem is that it’s not easy to find reading materials that qualify as extensive reading; it might be impossible as a beginner. Fortunately, this is not an either or situation, so even if you can’t find texts where you know 98% of the vocabulary, 95% is much better than 90% and even 80% is much better than 60%.

The more you understand, the better! The less you understand, the more you have to compensate by studying, looking things up and so on , which will take time and, at least for some students, be more tedious.

The 7 best Chinese reading practice resources for beginners

To help you out, I here present seven reading resources you can use to find appropriate reading material. These are not specific resources, but rather types of resources that you can use, but I will make sure to also give several examples with links so you can check them out for yourself.

I will try to provide free alternatives when possible, but paid resources will also be mentioned. If you have some money to invest, free products are not always the best option. If you only want free reading resources, I suggest you check this article: The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners.

The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners

Without further ado, here are the seven types of reading resources you can use to improve your Chinese reading ability as a beginner:

Chinese reading practice for beginners #1: Textbooks

Yes, I know, this sounds either obvious or stupid, but bear with me! Textbooks are written with beginners in mind, and entry-level textbooks are written for zero beginners. This means that they contain texts and dialogues that are as easy as possible and don’t require any prior knowledge to make sense of.

Sure, they become harder for each chapter, but there’s a way around that! Just use more than one textbook. If you read everything in chapter 1-5 in five different textbooks, you can be relatively sure that the reading will become easier and easier for each textbook you cover. While you can buy all these textbooks, you can also find many of them online.

Recommended Chinese textbooks for beginners

• Integrated Chinese (choose simplified or traditional characters; suitable for self-study)
• New Chinese Practical Reader (simplified or traditional characters)
• A Course in Contemporary Chinese (traditional characters; popular in Taiwan)
• Practical Audio-Visual Chinese (traditional characters; also focused on Taiwan, but older than the previous textbook)
• Easy Steps to Chinese (simplified characters)

Why you should use more than one Chinese textbook

Chinese reading practice for beginners #2: Graded readers

They are also much, much longer than comparable texts and dialogues in textbooks, so you get to see the same characters and words over and over, which is great for that exposure and experience I mentioned above.

Recommended Chinese graded readers for beginners

• Mandarin Companion (especially the breakthrough level at only 150 characters, simplified or traditional); read my review here ),
• Chinese Breeze   (another series of books, starting at 300 words, simplified characters only)
• Sinolingua Rainbow Bridge (starting at 150 words, simplified only).
• More suggestions here .

Chinese reading practice for beginners #3: Reading apps

Most of these apps present much shorter texts than the average graded reader and also come with numerous other features, such as pop-up dictionaries, recorded audio and more.

The short length makes them less daunting, but it also increases difficulty. Try to find texts you can read without relying too much on scaffolding tools.

Recommended Chinese reading apps for beginners

• DuChinese (smooth interface with free and paid content; use code HACKINGCHINESE for 10% off)
• The Chairman’s Bao (focusing on easy-to-read news)
• WordSwing (text adventure games at a slightly higher level; Escape! is free to play, learn more here ).
• M Mandarin (I wrote a short review in the free reading article here )

Escape: A text adventure game for Chinese learners

Chinese reading practice for beginners #4: Vocabulary apps

Ideally, you wouldn’t have to use apps like these very much, but since basic vocabulary is essential to even read at all, using them as supplementary tools to build and maintain a foundation of basic characters and words is useful.

Recommended Chinese vocabulary apps for beginners

• ChineseSkill (similar to Duolingo, but better suited to Chinese)
• Pleco (also the best dictionary you can find, flashcards are a paid add-on)
• Anki (free and very flexible; read my review here )
• Skritter (especially good for characters and handwriting, free and paid content; read my review here ).

Skritter review: Boosting your Chinese character learning

Chinese reading practice for beginners #5: Reading websites

By combining several of these, the amount of free reading available can keep you occupied for quite a while! I reviewed each of those mentioned below in that other article I linked to earlier , so I will just provide the names here.

Recommended Chinese reading websites for beginners

• Mandarin Bean
• Chinese Reading and Comprehension
• Chinese at Ease
• Chinese reading practice (练读中文)
• Yes! Chinese (中文天下)
• My Chinese Reading

Chinese reading practice for beginners #6: Transcripts from beginner listening resources

At a beginner level, there’s no big difference between formal, written Chinese and colloquial, spoken Chinese, so just go ahead and read the dialogues. When your Chinese gets better, transcripts of real conversations will of course be different from Chinese written with a reading audience in mind, but don’t worry about that now!

Please note that many podcasts offer their episodes for free, but charge for supplementary materials such as transcripts. Thus, try to find one that you like and consider paying for it, or if you can’t do that, stick to the other resources mentioned in this article!

Recommended Chinese podcasts with transcripts for beginners

• ChinesePod – One of the earliest podcasts for Chinese learners with an unrivalled library of lessons. Access to transcripts requires a premium subscription. If you only want to pay for one resource, this is the one.
• iMandarinPod – This podcast has transcripts directly available online. Here’s a direct link to episodes tagged as “elementary” , the lowest level. This will still not be easy if you just started out, though.
• Chillchat – This podcast is free to listen to, but you need to become a monthly supporter in order to get access to study notes and transcripts. If you like the audio episodes, consider using them for reading practice too.

For more listening resources for beginners, check out The 10 best free Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners:

The 10 best free Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners

Chinese reading practice for beginners #7: Interactive reading for beginners

• If you have friends who speak Chinese, start text chatting with them. They will know that you’re a beginner, so will naturally adjust their language, and if they don’t, gently ask them to. Not all native speakers are good at this, and some of them might not be interested, but it doesn’t hurt to try!
• Start a language exchange with a native speaker who wants to learn a language you speak , which guarantees that you have a shared interest, and that you don’t need to worry about wasting the other person’s time. Obviously, to count as reading practice, this exchange should be partly or completely in writing. You can try apps like HelloTalk for this.
• If you have the means to do so, hire a tutor to chat with. It only takes a few minutes occasionally for them to keep a conversation going, but it can provide you with great reading practice. Once they get to know you, they will also know your level and be able to adjust to it. Tell them that you don’t really want to learn more words, but that you’d like to practise as much as possible using the vocabulary you already know.

12 ways chatting online will improve your Chinese

Conclusion: Read as much as you can at your current level

As we have seen, the goal should be to read as much as possible. The only way to do that is to focus on texts that you can make sense of while only looking up characters and words occasionally. If you just started learning, it will be hard to find such texts, but do your best and try to find those that are as close to your level as possible! The better your Chinese becomes, the easier it will be to find texts that are both easy and enjoyable to read.

I’m not necessarily saying that you should only do extensive reading and never challenge yourself by reading harder texts; by all means do so occasionally! This is what most students are forced to do in class every lesson, though, so the most common situation is that students only do intensive reading, which is backwards.

If you find your self in such a situation, do your best to find reading materials on your own and practise extensive reading outside the classroom! Your Chinese will benefit immensely from it and you’ll have more fun along the way too!

In this article, I’ve done my best to provide you with beginner-friendly reading materials. What’s your favourite? Do you maybe know a resource I have overlooked? Please leave a comment below!

Want to read the companion article to this one about listening practice? Check here: Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how

Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how

Editor’s note:  This article, originally from 2016, was rewritten from scratch in November 2021.

18 comments

Good write-up! I wasn’t aware of “Du Chinese”, seems like something I ought to check out.

As regards Mandarin Companion vs. Chinese Breeze, I’d say I find the latter to be better value for the money overall. Not only are the Chinese Breeze volumes cheaper, they also come with audio CDs (consisting of protection-free MP3-files) that are very good quality. I really wish the same was true for Mandarin Companion, because I agree that their stories are usually more engaging than Chinese Breeze’s.

With the shortage of graded readers available I guess I would recommend buying all the books from both of these series (as I have done myself), but if I had to choose one I’d go with Chinese Breeze because of the available audio CDs.

Good stuff.

Great collection! Decipher Chinese is pretty good for beginners, too. Looks similar to Du Chinese (which I haven’t tried yet), but it’s pleasant to use and they regularly add content.

What about the “Graded Chinese Reader” series? https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_21?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=graded+chinese+reader&sprefix=graded+chinese+reader%2Caps%2C261&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Agraded+chinese+reader

I have read books of levels 1-3 of this series and I quite liked them. The texts are more advanced than those in the “Mandarin Companion” and “Chinese Breeze” series, which makes them a good choice for the transition from the beginner’s books to the authentic literature in Chinese. And BTW, all texts in the “Graded Chinese Reader” series are abridged versions of the authentic stories written by popular Chinese writers.

I wasn’t aware of that series, actually. I will contact the publisher and see if I can get some review copies. Thanks for the recommendation!

Hi everybody, thanks to this article I discovered “The Chairman’s Bao” which looks great… But I think their site is a bit misleading, isn’t it? I signed up (but didn’t subscribe) and received a “welcome email” explaining I now have access to all sorts of great features… Only I don’t! The “read more” button takes me back to the Home page and the App on my tablet keeps shutting down as soon as I try and open a new tab… Anybody else having difficulties with the website or the App? Or is it simply that they’ve made all their resources available only to subscribers? I would actually consider subscribing but given the glitches on the App, I don’t feel so confident… Will check out Du and the other suggestions here. Many thanks!

I think it might be because they started charging for their content shortly after my article was published. I think charging for a service like this is reasonable, but it can always be discussed if they way they do it is good. Perhaps they’ve locked up too much content? In any case, my recommendation still stands, but I’ll add a note to the article about subscriptions. Thanks for pointing this out! Regarding your problem, I think the best way would be to contact their support. I’m interested in how this works out, so please report back if you can. 🙂

Update: I found this , perhaps related?

Best wishes,

“support” at Chairman’s Bao got back to me super quickly and they’re working on fixing the glitches. I agree with you, their offer is good and charging for it is reasonable and understandable. I checked out Du Chinese, which looks quite good as well and is easy to use. Thanks for your help and for all the good tips you share in your articles!

Thanks to this article I just started using Du Chinese and I have to say it’s a really great resource. Actually my reading is pretty good, however my tones are terrible (of the words I can read, I probably truly remember the tones of about 20% of them). Because the articles already have the tone marks it means I can sit and read an article aloud without having to check a dictionary to find the tone constantly. I think this can be a great help to slowly committing more and more tones to my long term memory.

Chinese Breeze now has two books of level 4 (1100 words).

I think hskreading.com is good for anyone who wants to find Chinese reading material. It provides English translations which really helps beginners understand the text. It doesn’t have Pinyin as default so it is hard at first but if you combine it with Anki it is great for learning Chinese.

One good resource for improve reading is Chinese Skill, is an app for learning Chinese in general, it has a lot of features like SRS, word reviews, etc, but also has a large collection of simple written lessons with audio, English translation, pinyin, etc.

For now, I am using https://www.chinesereadersguild.com/

I do think that it is an invaluable source of Chinese reading materials. Their articles have audio and full English translation. The thing I like the most from the website is that their articles cover so many topics: politics, medicals, K-pop, Chinese idioms, and even black holes!

PS: The website also has an Instagram account, which covers Chinese idioms. The account is @chinesereadersguild

I need to check that resource in more detail; thanks for the tip!

It is a shame that Chinese Breeze does not maintain their website. But in fact they now have four volumes at their Level 4 (1,100 words).

Thank your letting me know! This article is overdue for an update, and I will make sure to include a more thorough look at Chinese Breeze. I have in fact only read a few of their level 1 and level 2 books.

I find the graded readers from http://www.imagin8press.com delightful. Folktales for smaller vocabulary and The Journey to the West beginning with 600 word vocabulary. All the books have free audio on their website, read by good readers. I find some of the Mandarin Companion audio too robotic to be helpful, although the books themselves are good.

Thank you for bringing this up! They are on my radar, but I haven’t had time to actually read them yet. I think it’s great that they provide the audio for free (this is also common for some textbooks these days), which makes it a valuable listening resource as well.

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The Best Chinese Reading Resources Online

Posted by Lilian Li 22494

If you want to improve your Chinese reading, you must read as much as you can. There are so many reading resources online, so which one is better? Today, I will introduce the 10 best Chinese reading resources that are available online.

煎蛋：地球上没有新鲜事 http://jandan.net/

Suitable for: Intermediate or advanced

This site includes many interesting articles about science and technology. The style of the articles are humorous and relaxed. You don’t need to actually understand every single one of the articles; just get their general idea. You can also leave your comments in the comment zone and discuss with other readers. You can improve your Chinese reading with ease through this site.

好读： http://www.haodoo.net/

Suitable for: Advanced

This website contains a large amount of traditional Chinese e-books. Most of them are famous Chinese classical novels. You could read them online or download them to your computer. My suggestion is to download them because the online text style might be illegal and it is hard to read. Downloading it can help you read it better.

Chinese Daily Reading: http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/online-self-study/daily-reading

Suitable for: All Chinese readers

On this site, you can read many short articles about Chinese culture or life. It is easy to understand. You could leave your comment or question in the comment zone.

Beginning Level: http://collections.uiowa.edu/chinese/topic_beginning.html

Suitable for: Beginners, intermediate and advanced

There is a huge number of lessons on this site, with vocabulary, audio, texts, and exercises. All the resources on it are free. You can click the appropriate links in the top navigation and choose the correct level for yourself. You should also note that all material can be read only after you download it.

纽约时报中文网: http://cn.nytimes.com/

Suitable for: Intermediate and advanced

This is the Chinese version of the New York Times. It contains ample reading material about current issues. The articles have both Chinese and English, ad you can choose which version you want to read. I believe it is a good way to practice your Chinese reading skills by reading the Chinese news.

Chinese Tools: http://www.chinese-tools.com/chinese/chengyu

Suitable for: Beginners and Intermediate

On this site, you can learn lots of Chinese idioms or Chengyu. You can also read stories about Chinese idioms, with pinyin and Chinese annotation. It is much easier than other reading material.

A Chinese Text Sampler: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dporter/sampler/sampler.html#ml

This website includes a carefully chosen selection of 80 significant Chinese texts for students wishing to develop their reading skills while improving their cultural literacy. It also includes classical and modern Chinese literature, historical documents, song lyrics, children stories, and lists of commonly used characters, idioms, and proverbs.

The marco polo project: http://marcopoloproject.org/

Suitable for: Intermediate

This site is a digital community for reading and translating Chinese. It has a diverse selection of Chinese writing by independent journalists, with bilingual titles and tagging. You can contribute your translation to the articles, and you can also read the bilingual articles which have already been translated by contributors.

Just Learn Chinese: http://www.justlearnchinese.com/mini-novels/

Suitable for: Beginner and intermediate

Lots of short stories for beginner and intermediate learners are available on this site. Some of the articles have audio and translation versions with word lists. The stories are short and easy to understand. It is really a good resource for Chinese reading.

Chinese Text Project: http://ctext.org/

This site is a web-based e-text system designed to present ancient Chinese texts, especially Chinese philosophy. It is well-structured and makes use of the electronic medium to help learners study and understand the texts. It is a great reading resource!

Pro Tips: Reading Chinese online is useful, however, you may encounter some questions during reading. If you want to improve your reading skills and become more efficient, attending a Chinese reading course is the best way. Act now and book a free trial class here!

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16 Best Chinese Learning Websites for 2024

If you’re looking for the best websites to learn Chinese, then you don’t have to search long.

There are tons of amazing websites that’ll help you master any element of the Chinese language, from pronunciation to reading comprehension to essential Chinese idioms. 

They work for all levels of learners too, so go ahead and bookmark your favorites on this list! 

1. Best for Reading Practice: The Chairman’s Bao

2. best for immersive chinese videos: fluentu, 3. best for in-depth chinese grammar: chinese grammar wiki, 4. best for flexible learning styles: chineseclass101, 5. best for native chinese audio: chinese voices, 6. best for video-based chinese lessons: yoyo chinese, 7. best for chinese learning video series: cctv learn chinese, 8. best for looking up chinese words: yellowbridge, 9. best for audio-based chinese lessons: pimsleur, 10. best for conversational chinese: rocket languages, 11. best for chinese idioms: chinese-tools’ chengyu story database, 12. best for grammar explanations: chinese boost grammar page, 13. best for writing chinese characters: arch chinese, 14. best for short-term chinese courses: udemy, 15. best for free chinese courses: mandarinx, 16. best for new learners: mandarin chinese 1: chinese for beginners, what makes a website good for learning chinese.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

This site is updated daily and there are articles that are appropriate for elementary to advanced learners. You can toggle between simplified and traditional characters, and if you highlight a character or word, the definition and pinyin will appear to the right of the text. You can sort articles by HSK level or by topic.

The Chairman’s Bao is a great everyday resource, but of course, it’s particularly useful if you’re studying for the HSK. The ability to sort by HSK level means you can really focus on reading everything at the level you’re attempting to master. I’m a huge fan.

FluentU turns clips from authentic Chinese media— TV shows, movies, news segments and more —into personalized language lessons. You’ll learn common words, phrases and expressions as they’re actually used by native speakers.  

Each FluentU video comes with interactive subtitles in Chinese, pinyin and English . You can toggle each language on and off as needed. As you’re watching, just hover over or click on any unfamiliar words to see their translation, grammatical information and more.

You can review your new vocabulary with the program’s multimedia flashcards and test your knowledge with personalized quizzes .

The expansive video library is organized by topic and difficulty, so you can easily find what you need no matter your level or interests. You can also download the FluentU app for  iOS or Android and try it out with a free 2-week trial .

Each grammar point is presented concisely, with several example sentences to show different use cases and even exceptions. You can literally look up almost any grammar point you encounter in Chinese and find an entry on this website.

On top of this, they also have an index of top Chinese grammar textbooks , with the grammar points listed down by chapter as a preview in case you want to get the book. Another useful page would be their reading tools section , which includes browser extensions for reading Chinese online.

What’s more, each level has multiple pathways. So whether you want to focus on reading skills, business Chinese, Chinese culture or simple vocabulary, you can choose the pathway that’ll help you achieve your goals faster.

You can also add multiple pathways to your dashboard, so you’re not limited to working through only one at a time. When starting out, ChineseClass101 will recommend a certain pathway for whichever level you’ve chosen or been placed into after taking a test.

For an in-depth review of ChineseClass101, click here . 

The podcasts are made specifically for Chinese learners, so the audio is a little slower and clearer than if they were chatting informally with a friend—it’s a great way to get accustomed to authentic speaking and accents.

Chinese Voices is also an excellent tool for cultural immersion. In the podcast, Chinese students discuss the joys and challenges of their everyday lives. It’s probably the best window into life in Beijing that you’ll get as a Mandarin Chinese learner, at least until you’re prepared to listen to and read native-level materials.

The lessons are all video-based. After watching the video lesson, you can download PDF lesson notes, test yourself with flashcards, take a quiz and listen to an audio review where you’re prompted to repeat after the native speaker twice.

Yoyo Chinese currently offers three Chinese reading courses and three conversational courses. The conversational courses are Beginner, Intermediate and Upper Intermediate, and the character courses are Character I, Character II and Character Reader.

In other words, it’s easy to see progress in your speaking, listening and reading all with this one website.

Each video series is spoken in Chinese and takes breaks in between to explain important vocabulary or grammar topics. By learning with CCTV Learn Chinese, you improve your vocabulary, grammar and listening comprehension skills even as an absolute beginner.

Their “Growing Up with Chinese” series is one of the most popular and features 100 episodes. It teaches 300 of the most common Chinese phrases and has a host to explain each one to learners after listening to a conversation.

Even though many of the websites on this list have their own built-in dictionary functions, a dedicated dictionary is essential to truly mastering reading and writing in Chinese. The YellowBridge dictionary is the best in part due to the sheer number of features it offers.

For each character you look up, you’ll get a stroke order animation, a list of different possible pronunciations and meanings, character frequency ranking and a whole host of other information. There’s also a thesaurus (a great resource once you’re doing your own writing), and you can look up the etymology of characters and words. There are also example words for all of the characters.

While the main attraction is the dictionary, there’s even more to YellowBridge. You’ll find a flashcard functionality, lessons about stroke order and HSK study guides.

Each lesson starts with a conversation you won’t understand. The lesson then introduces new words, sentences and grammar through having you repeat the native speaker and build sentences. At the end of the 30-minute lesson, you listen to the conversation again and can understand everything!

The Chinese course consists of five levels. Every level has 30 lessons, each lasting 30 minutes. Therefore, it’s extremely doable to complete an entire course in just one month at 30 minutes a day.

With the website, you can also access reading lessons, complete roleplay speaking challenges, practice with digital flashcards, earn badges for each lesson completion, test your knowledge in speed games and more.

Here’s a review of Pimsleur if you want to know more about the program. 

The foundation of the Rocket Languages method is to listen to audio lessons. This is a fabulous way to get used to understanding Chinese. Since it’s not video-based, it’s also great for listening while you’re doing something else (say, commuting or cleaning up around the house).

The pronunciation tool allows you to focus on getting your pronunciations to sound native, another one of Rocket Language’s major advantages.

Learn about the pros and cons of Rocket Languages here . 

Chinese idioms are a bit like vocabulary words; some are common, some are obscure. Some, like 马马虎虎 (ma ma hu hu, meaning “so so; mediocre”), are taught in the most basic Chinese lessons. It’s that much more interesting, though, to know that the idiom refers to a story about a painter who was so careless that you couldn’t tell if his painting was of a horse or of a tiger.

That’s why Chinese-Tools’ Chengyu story database is so useful. These stories have been simplified and rewritten for Chinese learners, but they provide enough of the basic Chengyu story for you to understand the idiom. The stories come with annotated Chinese, pinyin and English definitions.

These stories are like Chinese fairy tales. So not only are you getting reading practice with the story, but you’ll also get really important cultural information and have some common ground with Chinese native speakers.

Their grammar page is extremely in-depth and is organized by level. They have grammar topics from level A1 (absolute beginner) to level C1 (advanced).

They also have topics organized by HSK level. Simply scroll to the bottom of the page to find grammar lessons for HSK levels one through five.

You can also choose grammar lessons with specific characters or simply work your way through their list of tags, keywords, parts of speech and functions.

There’s an animated tool that shows you how to write individual characters, while worksheets provide guidance on effective learning methods and help you build good writing habits. One big advantage to Arch Chinese is that you can use the pre-made vocabulary lists, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out what to learn. You can just focus on learning.

A great starting point is Arch Chinese’s radical list. This will lay the groundwork for learning and understanding Chinese characters in a way that’s more than just rote memorization.

Arch Chinese also has a tone drill app that lets you practice tones both individually and as part of multi-character words. This is a fabulous way to internalize not only the individual tones, but also how the tones change as they are paired with other syllables as part of words.

From HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) test preparation to beginner Mandarin courses, Udemy has a little something for everyone.

Great courses to start out with are the “Chinese Language for Beginners: Mandarin Chinese HSK 1-3” course and the “College Mandarin Chinese Course On Your Own: Beginning Level” course.

The purpose of MOOCs is to give learners as close to an in-class experience as possible —regardless of where they are. Many are structured like university courses and follow a syllabus, and others actually have start and end dates and are filled with tests, quizzes and homework assignments.

On Udemy, you get the best of both worlds— a structured Chinese course you can complete at your own pace.

This collection of Mandarin MOOCs includes courses like Mandarin Chinese Level 1, Mandarin Chinese Level 2, Mandarin Chinese Level 3, Mandarin Chinese Essentials, Mandarin Communication and Mandarin Chinese for Business.

Each course is free and self-paced, meaning you work through the course on your own time and don’t have to stick to a schedule or syllabus from a teacher. However, if you’d like to receive a verified certificate at the end of the course, you only have to pay a small fee.

Offered by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, this course is structured just like a university class but you can enroll for free. The class does have start and end dates, however, so if you’re unable to enroll at the moment, you can always check back for new offerings.

The course is five weeks long and by the end of it, learners will know 150 words, 20 language points and how to handle five real-life situations in Chinese. It takes approximately 10 hours to complete and follows a syllabus.

• Using the website actually advances your Chinese skills. That may sound obvious, but it can be easy to pick a website that’s more entertaining than effective. Look for websites that have strong philosophies behind their learning tools and positive testimonials from users. 
• It’s focused on specific learning goals. A website that’s great for learning characters but nothing else is a better choice than something that’s mediocre at everything.

Look for structured websites that can help you target your specific language weakness. Even broad, comprehensive language sites should be easy to navigate and offer different tools for different skills. 

• A good website is cost-effective . That doesn’t always mean free—it just means that the price is reasonable compared to value. The great thing about websites is that they’re usually quite accessible and offer a range of pricing plans. Generally speaking, it’s not necessary to spend as much money on a website program as you would on, say, a private tutor.

Does this inspire you to move your Mandarin Chinese language skills forward with a couple of great websites?

Now you know exactly where to start—with these 16 best Chinese learning websites!

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Learn to Read Chinese!

Video Stories Teach Mandarin Chinese to Students.

Join the Mandarin Reading Club Today.

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Why Mandarin Reading Club?

Designed for Self Study

While younger students may need help from parents and tutors, our program is designed for self learning in mind. Similar to how someone learns vocabulary, grammar and subject matter all from reading a book, our video stories and supplemental learning materials provide everything students need to achieve literacy in Mandarin Chinese.

Engaging “Read Aloud” Video Stories

We produce our own videos that are appropriate for students at different levels. Our “read aloud” video stories provide audio visual connections between characters and sounds, improving pronunciation and vocabulary recall. From fiction to STEM, nature and geography, we are constantly updating our content to make reading interesting and fun for our students.

Tutoring Options

We understand that many beginners and younger learners may require assistance from tutors. While we do not provide tutoring ourselves, we do allow our subscribers to use their own tutors or choose from a list of external tutors. Because our learning materials are organized for self learning in mind, teachers can work with the existing video curriculum, making tutoring and learning more efficient for the student.

Interactive Learning with Relevant Vocabulary

Every video story provides the full Chinese text of the video along with English definitions of the words and sentences. Our interactive learning section provides vocabulary lists and an online flashcard program to aid in comprehension. We also try to include vocabulary from two standard Chinese language proficiency tests: The HSK from China and the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL) from Taiwan.

Includes Simplified and Traditional Characters

Our videos and learning materials are available in both Simplified and Traditional character sets along with Pinyin and Bopomofo to aid in pronunciation. While students have a choice of learning either character set, we encourage exposure to both Simplified and Traditional character sets as they will likely encounter both in the future when consuming online Chinese language media, visiting places in Asia, and/or reading text messages and social media posts.

Camps and Events

In addition to our online learning videos, we also partner with Mandarin immersion camp providers both in the United States and other International locations where students can learn to speak Chinese and practice what they’ve learned in real life settings. From time to time, we may also organize contests and events to provide fun and rewarding learning experiences for our students.

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Learn to read Chinese online with the Mandarin Reading Club! Here’s how:

• 1. Choose any subscription plan. See plans .
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• 3. Review the content of the video in the interactive learning section and use the online flashcards to learn the vocabulary.
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How to find suitable reading materials

If you're trying to learn Mandarin Chinese, extensive reading (reading longer texts that are written at a comfortable, relatively easy level for the reader) gives you a chance to practice seeing words in a variety of contexts, to get used to grammar structures as they are typically used, and to improve their reading speed through an enjoyable process.

HOWEVER... it's not always easy for learners to find suitable materials that are both fun to read and at an appropriate level. We aim to help learners find and compare books so that learning is fast and fun — as it should be!

Recommended reader series   (more below)

Chinese Breeze

Mandarin Companion

Graded Chinese Readers

Rainbow Bridge

Chinese Breeze is a well-written set of storybooks designed for high school and university students. The series offers language learners at all levels the opportunity to read for pleasure while simultaneously developing reading comprehension skills, building confidence, and increasing motivation.

• four levels (300, 500, 750, and 1100 words)

audio available as downloadable mp3s

glossary of new/difficult words

footnotes with new vocabulary as it's introduced

exercises for each chapter

paperback and Kindle versions available

Mandarin Companion is a series of easy-to-read novels in Chinese that are fun to read and proven to accelerate language learning. Every book in the Mandarin Companion series is carefully written to use characters, words, and grammar that a learner is likely to know.

• three levels (150, 300, 450 characters)

simplified and traditional character versions

Sinolingua's Graded Chinese Readers

Subtitled "Selected, Abridged Chinese Contemporary Short Stories", these reading books each provide 5 or 6 short stories each contemporary Chinese authors, introduced and annotated in English and with pinyin.

• six levels (500 - 3000 words)

paperback, Kindle, and Pleco editions available

pinyin for lower levels, with card for hiding pinyin

simplified characters only

This series selects topics from Chinese mythology, legends, folklore, literary classics, biographies of renowned people and historical tales. Each story also includes an introduction to the main characters in Chinese and English, new words with English explanations and sample sentences, and an English translation of the story.

• seven levels (150 - 2500 words)

accompanying English translation

exercises for the reader

This series presents the famed Journey to the West story from Chinese mythology as a series of nine readers for beginning intermediate students, as well as several stories geared towards beginners.

• 600-, and 1200-word levels

paperback and Kindle editions available

audio available on YouTube

simplified and traditional editions available

full glossary of all words used in the story

Edmund Chua's Graded Chinese Readers

These bilingual books are designed to help Chinese language learners master vocabulary through reading.  These books first present the story sentence-by-sentence, with pinyin and English below each Chinese sentence, then present it paragraph-by-paragraph. It’s a good way of making it easy to find the meaning or pronunciation of words you don’t know, while the paragraph-by-paragraph presentation allows the more advanced reader not to be bothered with pinyin above every word. 

• six levels (150, 300, 600, 1200, 2500, and 5000 words)

glossary of difficult words used in the story

HSK Academy

Designed specifically with practice for the HSK exams in mind, these books are "100% certified" to contain only Chinese characters from the target HSK vocabulary list.  This series solves the problem of unfamiliar vocabulary by including a paragraph-by-paragraph version with accompanying pinyin and English, as well as a full-story version in characters.

• four levels (150, 300, 1200, and 5000 words)

separate pinyin and English for each paragraph

HSK Storybooks

These books each include full story with characters as well as a paragraph-by-paragraph version with accompanying pinyin and English. These books provide very targeted practice for the HSK exam, covering all of the words for the specified level without requiring many additional words.

• three levels (150, 300, 600 words)

mp3s available for download

glossary of difficult vocabulary

SK Mishra's Chinese Short Stories

These short stories are drawn from famous Chinese myths and legends. 

• all books are described as "Level 1" (approximately 2000-3000 words)

December 24th  By Simon Ilincev

The 6 best apps for reading chinese.

Reading is undeniably one of the most effective ways to improve your Chinese skills. Mountains of research show the impact of reading on language development, especially in a foreign language. But reading Chinese can be hard, leaving you looking for the best Chinese reading apps. 

For us second language learners, research shows that reading at high levels of comprehension, ideally at an extensive reading level of 98%+ comprehension, will not only improve your reading skills, but also improve your writing, listening, and speaking skills.

However, reading in Chinese has its own unique challenges – the most common of which is encountering an unfamiliar character. There is simply no way to sound it or to decode it; you either know it or you don’t.

Thankfully, there are a growing number of Chinese reading apps available to help Chinese learners, like you and I, read in Chinese, even when it’s difficult! We’ve done an extensive review of these smartphone apps so you can decide which will work best for you. 

Chinese Popup Dictionaries – Good or Bad?

Before we start with the reviews, we want to make sure you know how to use these apps, *ahem*, responsibly.

Most importantly, we should always strive towards reading comprehensible texts appropriate for our level. This is when learning is most efficient! If you’re reading at below 90% comprehension, or where 1 in 10 words are unknown, consider looking for something easier.

A good place to start is with the Mandarin Companion Chinese graded readers , which are written specifically for Chinese learners like you. Of course, sometimes there is just nothing at your level or, for whatever reason, you need to read something that may be challenging. This is when these pop-up dictionary apps come in most handy.

However, research shows that popup dictionaries have their time and place. You can’t just “click your way to fluency”, so we offer these two general guidelines for using Chinese popup dictionaries.

• Elementary learners: use popup dictionaries sparingly. Studies have found little learning benefit for lower level learners because at this stage, the overall grasp of the language is low – more time is spent understanding the looked-up words and phrases in English as opposed to understanding the text in Chinese. Yes, you can get through a Chinese text but you won’t learn much from it. Stick to texts at your level where you don’t need to constantly use the popup dictionary function. 
• Intermediate learners and above: popup dictionaries can make reading more accessible and lead to learning gains. At this stage, you already have a solid foundation in Chinese, and so popup dictionaries become more of an aide rather than a crutch by helping you with paragraphs and sentences that you already largely understand. 

At Mandarin Companion, John and Jared devoted a whole episode on the You Can Learn Chinese podcast that picks apart this subject. For a deeper dive, have a listen so you can make an informed approach. 

Apps and Evaluation Criteria 

We’ve searched high and low for the best Chinese reading apps for reading in Chinese and have identified these 6 as the strongest candidates.

To compare the best Chinese reading apps, we have used the following criteria. 

• What you can read – The content that is available on the app and what you can import into the app. 
• Key features – The functionality that is important to you as a Chinese learner.
• Ease of use – How easy it is to use the app along with any problems. 
• Pricing – What is free, what is paid, and what is worth it.

website | iOS | Android

Readibu is a freemium app targeted at Chinese-learning bookworms. It’s feature-rich and an excellent choice for reading webnovels.

What you can read

In the Book Discovery tab, there is a limited selection of books that can be searched by HSK level, completion status, genre, and protagonist gender. This database draws books directly from a handful of Chinese novel websites such as Qidian. However, you also have the option of importing Chinese content by copying and pasting any URL into the app.

Unfortunately, Readibu only supports web pages. It cannot import PDF’s, ePubs, or any other ebook or digital formats. The developer has plans to support other formats, but this may be a long way off.

Key features

Readibu excels in vocabulary management. After tapping on a character, the English definition, pronunciation, and transliteration pop up. The app keeps track of words you’ve tapped, as well as how many times you’ve tapped them. You can also ‘favorite’ words into a special category, exportable as a CSV/TSV file to your flashcard app.

Being built for language learners, Readibu also boasts a wide range of other Chinese-specific reading features:

• A popup dictionary with pronunciation and English definitions
• HSK difficulty analysis
• Web Novel discovery
• Simplified and Traditional Chinese conversion
• Sentence translation (Premium)
• Word visualization (Premium)
• Proper name highlighting (Premium)
• Offline downloading (Premium)

The automatic conversion between Simplified and Traditional opens up a wider range of content for those studying traditional characters. While we have not tested its accuracy, this is nonetheless a useful feature for all those studying traditional characters!

The HSK analysis graphs a text’s difficulty by HSK level, making it a simple visual metric of content accessibility.

Ease of use

While reading, Readibu is quite responsive – it doesn’t suddenly crash or stutter on long chapters. As a result, it’s easy to open up a page and start reading, with the app even providing shortcuts such as automatically pasting URLs from your clipboard.

However, Readibu has its fair share of bugs, likely due to having just one developer. Opening the app or loading a long chapter can take anywhere from a few seconds to a minute. There’s also a small logical error – books in the Discovery tab have a fixed order, making it time-consuming to scroll down to find new content.

The battery drain is also unexpectedly high – more akin to a mobile game than a reading app! Additionally, for readers who enjoy listening wirelessly: Readibu works with wired headphones but doesn’t support Bluetooth. Audio pronunciation will play from your phone’s speakers even if you have Bluetooth headphones connected.

Readibu’s free core version includes: a pop-up dictionary, audio word pronunciation, tap tracking, content difficulty analysis, Simplified-Traditional conversion, and Pinyin/Zhuyin support.

The five-dollar monthly subscription unlocks sentence translation, proper noun underlining, a pinyin/definition pop-up quiz, offline reading, and image visualizations for words .

For intermediate and above learners who can already understand basic native content, Readibu will work great. Unless you’re a very dedicated reader or tackling a difficult text, the free version should suffice. But if you’re a lower level reader, most available books will be too difficult and you should consider the other apps on this list.

My vocabulary is pretty large, so I mostly just need the pop-up dictionary for characters like ​​舵 that always seem to elude me. Occasionally, I’ve had need to translate more complex sentences, such as a description of potion brewing in one of my favorite webnovels《修真聊天群》.

I love the convenience of Readibu – with just a few taps, I can export new words I’ve encountered to my flashcard deck or view the length of an upcoming chapter.

Regardless of your choice, make sure you’re reading with a charged phone! Otherwise, you may have to wait a couple minutes for your page to load, Premium or not.

While it’d be even more amazing if Readibu supported PDF and ePub file formats, the above features make it my favorite reading app for Chinese.

A giant amongst Chinese learning apps, if you don’t already have Pleco on your phone, download it now! This dictionary app has many additional features for reading in Chinese which we’ll cover here.

Pleco sells dozens of in-app graded readers , including our Mandarin Companion graded readers, for a range of levels spanning from HSK 1 to 6.

Pleco has three key functions in the app that are all a little bit different in what you can read.

The Clipboard Reader (free) allows you to paste any Chinese text into it.

The Document Reader (paid) allows you to import almost every common file format such as text files, Word documents, and PDFs. 

The Optical Character Recognizer (OCR) (paid) optically recognizes Chinese characters in a picture, live on your camera, or currently on your screen (Android only). 

All three feature a pop-up dictionary that integrates with the main dictionary. By tapping on a word or character on the screen, you are given a popup window showing its pinyin, tone, and definition, with the option to add it to your flashcards. With a further tap, you can view its components, stroke order, and sample sentences.

Android owners (sorry iOS users) can even use the Screen Reader/OCR (Optical Character Reader) as an overlay over other apps or web browsers to optically recognize Chinese characters displayed on your device. This allows you to click on characters in the image, app, browser, or whatever is being displayed on your phone for a popup definition of that character or word.

Pleco also has audio narration. While rather robotic, using the system text-to-speech, it is clear enough to listen to while reading a Chinese text.

Pleco has been around for a long time and is virtually error-free – the current version is as responsive as you’d expect from a thirteen-year-old product battle-tested by millions.

The reader for documents or web pages is intuitive and easy to navigate. Tapping on characters and words instantly displays the dictionary entry without any delays. 

Loading lyrics and images is less intuitive due to buried icons and unclear functions. There is a manual on their website, but who reads through those nowadays? I don’t, and went months without knowing how to load song lyrics!  

Currently, Pleco is working on version 4.0 of the app (with updates to the reader) which has been eagerly anticipated by the Chinese language learning community for some time now.

Pleco’s Clipboard Reader, and the Web Reader for Android devices, is free. The functionality is largely similar to the other reader functions, the difference being in the supported content types.

The Document Reader and OCR add-ons both have a one-time cost of $9.99, though they can be bought at a discounted price as part of a bundle.

As for books – in-app graded readers cost between $2.99 and $9.99, and include all Mandarin Companion books available for purchase at a discounted digital price.

Pleco is excellent for learners of all levels and types. The app works both online and offline, and its incredible range of supported files make content loading both a breeze and blazingly fast.

I’ve used almost everything from the optical reader to the web browser and found no bugs whatsoever.

After having purchased a few more add-ons, learning Chinese has been even more convenient – features integrate together very well. All it takes is a single tap to add an interesting word to my flashcard deck!

The only gripe I have is that there’s no sentence translation. Sometimes, knowing the definitions of every word individually in a difficult text is not enough to grasp its meaning. Regardless, in no way does this exclude it from the best Chinese reading apps.

LingQ is a creative reading tool that doesn’t only restrict itself to books – it allows for the import of anything from YouTube clips to podcasts to Netflix films, and extracts the text to help you ‘learn from your favorite content’.

LingQ has an enormous library of books, videos, podcasts, and more that you can use to find reading materials. With the release of LingQ 5.0 , you can even search through individual ‘shelves’ such as Netflix shows, songs, or Christmas-themed content.

This huge library sometimes comes at the cost of quality, however, since most content is made for natives and thus not specifically leveled for learners – it may take a while to find something that is both level appropriate and interesting to read.

Custom imports of books/podcasts/videos etc. for leisure or study purposes is also quite simple – all you need is the app or the browser extension.

Features abound, even at the free level. You can read along to natural audio, view detailed learning statistics, import custom resources, and access a plethora of graded Chinese content from the public library. Word definitions include common translations, sample sentences, and pronunciation.

LingQ breaks down every text into individual words, adding gaps between them. These words are highlighted with different colors to represent how well you know them, and can be reviewed with the in-app spaced-repetition flashcard system.

Using all this data, LingQ gamifies reading, providing comprehensive vocabulary statistics and a daily goal feature. 

All of these features combined can be a big help when reading!

LingQ has crystal-clear audio, advanced word definitions, and a well-organized tutorial. Word highlighting based on comprehension is an especially useful touch.

One drawback is the limit on viewed vocabulary for the free version. Any new word you click on will be added to your vocabulary list, and after this list reaches a size of twenty, you will only see a Premium advertisement instead of a definition for new words. Only by manually deleting entries from your vocabulary bank can you then see new definitions.

LingQ has a free and Premium version. With the free version, you have access to full text translations, lesson audio, SRS flashcard review, and all public lessons, but are limited to twenty word definitions and five custom resources.

For the $12.99/mo Premium version, you get unlimited word definitions, unlimited importable resources, vocabulary exporting options, and a few more minor features such as enhanced statistics and offline reading.

LingQ’s pricing plan offers a discount for purchasing 6, 12, or 24 month subscriptions.

LingQ puts a lot of effort into making itself a feature-rich app. In fact, it is much more than a reading app as it offers tutoring, diary corrections, and other features in a ‘Premium Plus’ subscription, which may be helpful for people looking for these types of services.

The range of supported content is extremely appealing – beginning Chinese learners, for example, may find that cartoons allow for earlier and more enjoyable ‘reading’ of native content. If you’re more advanced, ‘reading’ a new media type like a podcast episode can be an exciting experience.

That being said, you may feel frustrated if you stick with the free version, as after reaching the twenty-word limit, you’ll be assailed by frequent Premium advertisements.

But overall, LingQ can massively boost your reading skills. It’s wide range of content combined with motivating visual cues make LingQ a good, albeit pricer choice!

Amazon Kindle App

This is Amazon’s cross-platform reading app, developed to mirror the Kindle e-reader. While it is not specifically built for language learners, features such as a bilingual dictionary and flashcards still make it a decent choice for reading Chinese as a learner.

Tens of thousands of Chinese books (in both Simplified and Traditional) can be found on the Kindle Store, including the Mandarin Companion series, and some of these Chinese books are free. Likewise, you can email a wide variety of file formats to the app.

Key Features

Amazon Kindle supports text highlighting and bookmarking, which you can use to come back to a word or add comments.

The app also has a built-in, easily-accessible manual flashcard system. This, or note exporting, makes it simple to keep track of new vocabulary.

As a user, you can also highlight a phrase to get a free translation from Chinese to a language of your choice through Bing. If you only selected one word, you can even view the pinyin using a downloadable Chinese-English dictionary.

After logging in with your Amazon account (a requirement to use the app), getting started is easy. An intuitive and minimalistic interface lets you focus on just what’s important – reading Chinese.

If any thoughts strike you, four different highlighter colors and an infinite capacity for annotations make it easy to note them down.

Book and file loading is extremely fast, and moving between pages is smooth.

To load your own files into the app, you’ll have to send them to an email associated with your account, a somewhat tricky process clarified by an official guide here .

The Kindle app is free on all platforms, along with all of its features. The only time you need to spend money is when buying books in the Store.

When going through a text, I appreciate the note-taking features and free, detailed translations offered by the Kindle app.

It’s also been very useful for trips, as everything in the library is available offline. Even an airplane ride can’t be an excuse for not reading Chinese!

Plus, the app is cross-platform – meaning you can pick up on your computer where you left off on your Kindle app.

However, there are a couple downsides. Firstly, you have to manually indicate where a character or word starts and ends when translating words or using the dictionary function. This is somewhat frustrating when a word is a chengyu or proper noun, making it unclear what section to highlight. Similarly, for longer phrases not in the dictionary, it can be frustrating to have to break it down into individual characters to learn the pinyin.

There is only one Chinese/English dictionary available for use. The dictionary is good but if you want a wider range of definitions installing others is a roundabout process. 

Du Chinese is a bit different from the rest of the apps on this list – it’s specifically made to provide high-quality, learner-targeted Chinese text, but the library is restricted to officially-published content only. However, this content is well-graded and accessible even for beginners, and it’s worth taking a look.

Du Chinese offers over a 1900 Chinese stories, each specifically written to target one of the HSK 1-6 levels. There are a few hundred ‘lessons’ for each HSK category, with a slight skew towards the lower levels, and every lesson is from a couple hundred to a thousand characters in length.

In addition, there are a number of mini-series (a few for each level), which are about 4+ lesson-length chapters that tell a longer story.

Every Chinese word in the text can be tapped on for a detailed dictionary definition (including audio). All the characters can also be colored-coded based on their HSK level or set to show pinyin.

Each chapter has a professional recording by a native speaker which highlights each sentence as it’s read. If you are unsure of the meaning of a sentence, it can be tapped on for an English translation which has been done by a human, not Google translate.

Apart from the individual lessons, you can also save vocabulary for later export or in-app SRS flashcard review. Additionally, after creating an account, you can set goals for how many lessons a week and words per day you’d like to review.

Transitioning between lessons, reviewing vocabulary, or listening along to the text is seamless. Similarly, the ‘Discover’ tab allows for easy discovery of texts at the appropriate level given their colored HSK tags and stories are sorted into categories based on topic or searchable based on content.

A small downside is that the web and mobile versions of Du Chinese don’t fully share all features (such as options for audio speed). However, for the most part, features are well-laid-out and easily accessible, even for someone new to the app.

Du Chinese comes out as the most expensive on our list, with a monthly subscription costing $14.99. Six- and twelve-month subscriptions are also available at slightly discounted prices, but this is still higher than most other options. However, the Du Chinese team is constantly updating their lessons and adding new content, so you won’t need to worry about running out of new things to read.

It is worth noting that you can receive a 10% discount off your purchase, regardless of the subscription length, if you use the official code shared on their website here .

These subscriptions will unlock all 1900+ lessons (the free version only offers a couple random ones per HSK category per week), as well as allow you to download lessons for offline listening and reading.

If you’re looking for extensive Chinese reading content and have run out of graded readers such as ours , Du Chinese is a natural next step. The app can be helpful regardless of your current Chinese level through its vast array of lessons with native audio and translations. Even those at HSK 1 with just 150 words under their belt can already access hundreds of leveled stories.

Given the short nature of the stories, Du Chinese is also perfect for those who have just a few minutes to spare – that’s all it takes to have a targeted reading session and finish a lesson. Equally, it’s very convenient to review learned vocabulary through the built-in flashcard system.

The largest downside is the price, as Du Chinese is relatively expensive at nearly $15/mo. However, such a subscription unlocks reams of content that will suit you as your level grows, and is thus definitely worth considering for those who aren’t quite ready to dive into native or longer-form content.

website | iOS | official Android APK

Bonus review for advanced learners.

QQ阅读 is an app for native speakers with millions of users and an enormous catalog of books. If your Chinese is good enough to navigate through the app and you have a large vocabulary, it essentially makes the Chinese webnovel world your oyster!

Since QQ阅读 doubles as a book discovery platform, finding books will be the least of your worries! The app uses a sophisticated algorithm to recommend books to you based on your interests and reading history.

If none of the recommendations compel you, there’s a dedicated, searchable page listing popular books, newly published ones, free titles, and so on. You can also import a range of file types (all main formats such as TXT, ePub, PDF, etc. are supported).

Being developed for natives, there aren’t many Chinese-learner-specific functions. For example, rare is the native speaker who tracks new words they learn! Therefore, the app lacks support for managing or exporting vocabulary – you’ll have to do so manually by writing down new words or highlighting phrases in-app. Fortunately, there is a Chinese-English pop-up dictionary with audio pronunciation and pinyin, and even an automatic translation function.

Nevertheless, QQ阅读 has a couple of useful features regardless of level. Firstly, all books have free, high-quality AI narration – and some even have human narration too. Using this to listen while reading is advantageous for language acquisition.

Secondly, QQ阅读 is unique in having a commenting feature. Lines from popular books have upwards of hundreds of comments, which can answer plot-related questions or teach you genre-specific slang. Or are you perhaps looking to interact with native speakers? Adding to or creating a discussion only takes a few moments.

The app and books load quickly, complimenting a deliberately simple interface that’s been perfected with data from over a hundred million users.

Finding books or rearranging your bookshelf is also extremely straightforward, with all features intuitively labeled. If ever in doubt, there’s even an online guide and support team.

One hassle is the need for verification to access all features, which has to be done via SMS or by connecting to other Chinese apps such as QQ or WeChat.

Most of the books are published under a freemium model; after reaching a certain point in a novel, you’ll have to pay (on a chapter-by-chapter or subscription basis) to unlock additional chapters. Infrequent ads are also displayed.

Given that this is a Chinese app, books are very cheap. For example, a Hobbit-length webnovel would cost roughly $1.50. Each 1000 characters will typically cost between $0.01-$0.02 (0.01-0.05 yuan).

There is no fee for importing files.

I’m planning on migrating to QQ阅读 as soon as my level allows me to!

With its hundreds of thousands of books and countless users, it’s an excellent opportunity to chat with natives and read interesting books at a low cost. Additionally, I’ve found the statistics tracking, such as current book progress and time spent reading, to be motivating.

The audio is also simply amazing – it’s even free for custom files! For the advanced learners out there, or those reading easier content, this feature makes the app an excellent choice.

However, the lack of Chinese-learner-tailored features (such as showing pinyin for words) is a real drawback. Reading a book for natives without any pop-up dictionary assistance was quite time-consuming, and navigating through the interface with its technical descriptions was a challenge at first.

That being said, for Android users, using Pleco’s Optical Character Reader screen overlay allows you to essentially have a popup dictionary with QQ阅读. Modern problems call for modern solutions!

This has been our deep dive into the best Chinese reading apps you can use as a Chinese language learner! They’re all unique and suitable for slightly different purposes, so let’s summarize this into one table.

For lower-level Chinese readers, we recommend Pleco and/or LingQ. If you’re interested in reading a range of accessible content, the versatile LingQ import functions and public library will suit you well. The minimalist design and lower cost of Pleco is excellent for those who want to solely focus on reading Chinese texts.

For intermediate learners, we recommend Readibu, thanks to its sentence translation and proper noun highlighting – these two features make decoding difficult phrases much easier. While only supporting Chinese webpage content means beginners may struggle finding suitable texts to read, those who can already understand native works will benefit greatly from the Chinese-learner specific functions.

Advanced readers may find apps such as Kindle or QQ阅读 the best choice. QQ阅读’s vast array of native books and active Chinese community will give you many opportunities to interact with native speakers. This app even offers audio narration for all books and custom files, making it ideal for those who enjoy listening to audiobooks. The Kindle app similarly offers a large number of Chinese books, but also has excellent cross-platform support that makes it slightly more convenient for those using multiple devices. Of these two, the one most suitable to you will ultimately depend on which of the above features you find more useful.

And of course, regardless of your level, if you’re looking for shorter-form content, Du Chinese has got you covered. Their thousands of stories with professional audio and translations make for the perfect intensive study session or casual few minutes of reading, though for a high monthly price.

Which of these Chinese reading apps do you use? Share your experience in the comments below. New Chinese reading apps are always being developed and it is exciting to see what apps will come in the future!

Simon Ilincev

Simon is a student, avid Chinese learner, and coding enthusiast studying in Prague. When he’s not writing, you’ll find him reading 仙侠 xiānxiá or coding while listening to jazz.

One reply on “The 6 Best Apps for Reading Chinese”

I’m a very happy user of Du Chinese app. It is an amazing application for learners.

All histories are well designed in order to be easy to read, fun and educational. It is very responsive (even on my 7 years old Android), it’s online dictionary and audio are a plus.

I highly recommend it for anyone trying to learn Chinese.

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Best Apps for Learning Mandarin Chinese: We’ve Tried Them All

Mandarin Chinese is the second most spoken language in the world, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that there are a ridiculous number of apps out there for learning Chinese. While having plenty of options is certainly a good thing, finding the ones that are best for you can seem daunting. Hopefully, we can help with that.

We’ve tested dozens of these apps, and have included the ones that stand out the most. These apps will help you improve a number of language skills, and we’ve categorized them based on whether they’re best for speaking, listening, reading, or writing.

Be sure to check out our extensive Guide to Learning Chinese , with tips and links to all kinds of resources (online courses, podcasts, youtubes, and many others).

Table of Contents

Table of best apps to learn mandarin chinese.

Links below will send you to the app websites, and the app details are down below.

OVERALL BEST

Best Thought-out App: Du Chinese

Best Communication Skills App: Pimsleur

Best Interactive App: HelloChinese

Best for Writing Feedback: italki

Best Immersion Approach App: Yabla

READING AND LISTENING

Best for Learning Chinese Characters: Outlier Linguistics

Best for Reading About Current Events: The Chairman’s Bao

Best Interactive Reading Practice: WordSwing and M Mandarin

Best Audio Lessons in a Podcast Format: ChinesePod

SPEAKING AND WRITING

Best for Learning to Write Chinese Characters: Skritter and TOFU Learn

Best for Pronunciation Feedback: Speechling

VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

Best Dictionary App: Pleco

Best for Learning Words in Context: Clozemaster

Best Customizable Study Tool : Anki

Best for Grammar Practice: Chinese Grammar

TUTORS AND LANGUAGE EXCHANGES

Best for Finding an Affordable Tutor: italki and Preply

Best for Language Exchange: HelloTalk and Tandem

Best Q&A App: HiNative

Overall Best Mandarin Chinese Learning Apps

Learning a new language requires practicing a number of different skills, and most apps excel (or try to excel) at helping you improve one of them. Some apps take a more comprehensive approach to language instruction, and those are the apps that we’ve included in this category. Since they cover several aspects of Chinese, they can make better options for complete beginners.

Best Thought-Out App

Du Chinese is a fantastic resource for improving your reading skills. Its interface is wonderfully designed, making for a great user experience, and the content is interesting. You’ll also have the chance to improve your listening skills with this app by listening to the material read aloud. The articles are relevant and interesting, the app is super easy to use, the only downside is that new content isn’t added as frequently as for The Chairman’s Bao. However, it’s a little better for beginner level learners. You can  save 10%  on a subscription by using the coupon code “ alr10dc ”.

See our Super-Detailed Du Chinese Review

Best Communication Skills App

Pimsleur chinese.

Pimsleur Chinese is one of the most popular and longest-standing resources out there for learning the Chinese language. Its courses place a strong emphasis on aural and verbal communication skills, paying less attention to grammar explanations and reading or writing skills. 

See our Super-Detailed Pimsleur Chinese Review

Best Interactive App

Hellochinese.

HelloChinese is my favorite of the free apps for learning Chinese. The lessons are organized similarly to apps like ChineseSkill and LingoDeer, but they go into a bit more detail with everything. There are also lots of speaking exercises which I really like, as they force you to take an active role in your learning. This one is really well put together and provides a ton of content. There are also Premium and Premium+ plans that unlock a bunch of extra features. The Premium plan has lots of mini-games that can help you to practice what you’ve learned in the free lessons. The Premium+ plan is similar to a podcast in many ways, but with some additional exercises.

See our Super-Detailed HelloChinese Review

Best for Writing Feedback

It can be hard to find good places to get feedback on your writing. Most apps don’t offer any chance for feedback, and those that do frankly don’t often do a very good job. italki, better-known as a place to find an online language tutor, has a community feature called Exercise that makes a great solution for getting writing feedback. The feature allows users to publish a piece of writing in their target language on any subject they wish. Other users can then freely offer corrections and feedback. This tool is free to use! You can also help other users out by providing feedback on writing done in your native language. Right now get a $10 credit with your first purchase.

See our Super-Detailed italki Review

Best Immersion Approach App

Yabla is a language-learning platform that uses videos with interactive subtitles and language games to help users learn a language. It’s currently available on the web and for iOS, with an Android app in development. Its videos are of varying difficulty levels and types, and are either sourced from the internet or originally produced, but all videos use native speakers.

See our Super-Detailed Yabla Review

Apps to Learn Mandarin Chinese Reading and Listening

Reading and listening to Chinese learning material is essential if you want to improve your overall understanding of the language. We’ve listed a few of these resources that can help you improve these skills.

Best for Learning Chinese Characters

Outlier linguistics.

Outlier Linguistics is amazing if you want to really geek out about Chinese characters and learn everything you can about them — their components, origins, evolution, and more. These dictionaries are available as an add-on in the Pleco app and available in both Simplified or Traditional characters. Aside from the fact that this stuff is downright interesting, learning more about how characters are constructed and how they’ve changed over time can make them more meaningful, and therefore, easier to remember. Save 20%  by using the coupon code ‘ ALR20 ‘

Best for Reading About Current Events

The chairman’s bao.

The Chairman’s Bao has an incredible amount of reading content and is one of my favorites. It’s an online graded newspaper with new articles covering current events published daily. It also boasts video lessons for lower-level learners and lessons on historical folk tales and legends. Reading news stories on TCB feels less like studying and more like something I would do for fun. With so much of the content being China-centric, you’ll learn a ton about the culture as well. For additional practice, there are reading and listening comprehension exercises with each article. You can get  10% off  all individual subscriptions by using the coupon code “ alr10 ”.

See our Super-Detailed The Chairman’s Bao Review

Best Interactive Reading Practice

Wordswing is a mixture between a graded reader and a choose your own adventure game. As you read through the stories, you’ll have to make choices that will affect how the story unfolds. It’s one of the only resources that really forces you to actively use the language while reading, which is cool. They mainly target intermediate and higher-level students who are advanced beyond most graded readers but not quite ready for native materials. There are several different stories that you can try out for free, and more are being added.

See our Super-Detailed WordSwing Review

M Mandarin uses engaging comics to teach the language, making reading and listening to Chinese more fun. There are a number of other features as well, such as grammar and cultural explanations.

Best Audio Lessons in a Podcast Format

ChinesePod is one of the biggest names in the industry, recommended by nearly everyone, and remaining a solid option for over a decade. They have a massive library of lessons across all difficulty levels that make for a great way to improve your listening skills. Material at higher levels is taught entirely in Chinese, and an appropriate amount of English is used at the lower levels. Though this scales well, the lessons don’t necessarily build on each other intentionally. Following along with a textbook or another course will help make sure you don’t end up with gaps in your knowledge. You can get  $50 off  an annual Premium subscription to ChinesePod by using the coupon code “ ALLLANG50 ”.

See our Super-Detailed ChinesePod Review

Apps for Mandarin Chinese Speaking and Writing

The apps in this section will help you improve your articulation and pronunciation of Chinese words and help you understand Chinese word and sentence structure. They’ll guide you on how to write Chinese characters, words and eventually sentences.

Best for Learning to Write Chinese Characters

Skritter is perfect for those who are serious about learning to write Chinese characters. It teaches by having you write characters with your finger on your phone’s touch screen. The app uses this technique along with a combination of SRS flashcards and stroke recognition to help you remember how to write each character. It’s convenient to use and really is effective, but it’s also on the more expensive side of things.

See our Super-Detailed Skritter Review

For those who feel like Skritter isn’t worth the cost, TOFU Learn may be just what you’re looking for. It’s free and could make a suitable alternative for improving your vocabulary and helping you learn to write Chinese characters.

Best for Pronunciation Feedback

Speechling is a great way to get lots of practice mimicking native speakers. This can do wonders in helping you improve your speaking cadence, confidence, and pronunciation. It involves hearing a recording and then recording yourself saying the same sentence. Hearing yourself alongside a native speaker is an effective way to point out the differences and room for improvement. It’s also one of the only resources that allows you to choose between hearing a male or female voice. You can do all of this for free! Subscribers will be able to submit an unlimited number of recordings to be graded by a native speaker, helping you to identify pronunciation mistakes. You can get  10% off  a subscription to Speechling by using the promo code “ ALR123 ”.

See our Super-Detailed Speechling Review

Learn Mandarin Chinese Vocabulary with Apps

It’s no surprise that Chinese, being as widely spoken as it is, has quite the vocabulary. As a Chinese language learner, you should strive to always learn new vocabulary and practice them regularly. We have listed some very efficient apps to help expand your vocabulary.

Best Dictionary App

This might be the most popular app amongst learners of Chinese, and it’s more than just a dictionary. It’s a great dictionary, sure, but there are also loads of extra features. Learn character stroke orders, see example sentences, use the handwriting recognition tool, and listen to audio recordings of over 34,000 words by two native Mandarin speakers. There’s a reason this app is recommended so frequently. If you choose to only download one app – make it this one.

Best for Learning Words in Context

Clozemaster.

Clozemaster is a popular app that is excellent for getting exposure to lots of different sentences and vocabulary. This app uses fill-in-the-blank exercises in which you can type in your answer or choose from multiple choices. You can filter sentences based on HSK level and you’ll earn points for answering questions correctly. This plays into the app’s arcade-like theme, making it all feel somewhat like a game. Although there is a pro version that requires a subscription, most people will find the free version to offer plenty of value.

See our Super-Detailed Clozemaster Review

Best Customizable Study Tool

Anki is the best memorization tool out there when it comes to customization. It’s a simple yet powerful tool that uses an SRS algorithm to help users memorize whatever they want. Customization options include the ability to add images, audio, sentences, explanations, tags, and more. There is a bit of a learning curve when first getting started, but those that don’t want to spend the time creating their own materials can check out the  pre-made Chinese decks . The app is free on Android, $25 in the Apple App Store.

Best for Grammar Practice

Chinese grammar.

This app comes from the makers of Ninchanese and is purpose-built to teach grammar. It features over 130 grammar lessons, which can be sorted from HSK1 to HSK5. Each lesson comes with very detailed explanations and lots of examples. It’s free to use, and the only ads you’ll see are unobtrusive and for their course. It’s definitely the best app for Chinese grammar that I’ve seen.

Tutors and Mandarin Chinese Language Exchange Apps

If you prefer learning with the help of a tutor or through language exchange with a native Chinese speaker, then these resources are for you. Check them out and find which one is best for you.

Best for Finding an Affordable Tutor

italki is the most affordable and convenient place to find an online Chinese teacher — or any other language for that matter. There are a huge number of options to choose from, making it easy to find someone who fits your schedule, goals, learning style, and budget. You may be surprised by just how many good tutors are available for less than $10/hour. While italki is predominantly made for tutoring, you can also use it to easily find a language exchange partner to talk with for free or get writing feedback with the Exercise feature on the app. Right now get a $10 credit with your first purchase.

Another online tutor directory, Preply as a huge library of tutors teaching all kinds of subjects. Prices are quite low, but consider that teachers make small commissions and aren’t paid for teaching trial lessons.

Exclusive 50% discount for ALR readers! Make sure to use our link to receive it.

See our Super-Detailed Preply Review

Best for Language Exchange

Practicing with native Chinese speakers is certainly one of the fastest ways to make serious progress in the language, and HelloTalk makes it super easy to find language partners. HelloTalk is social in nature, connecting users with tons of potential language partners and allowing them to chat, send voice messages, or even have phone conversations. They also include built-in language tools to make communication easier. You can use the in-app translation tool and the correction tool to make the language exchange experience much more efficient. HelloTalk offers a limited number of translations for free each day and when it comes to aesthetic, the app is lighthearted and cartoony.

See our Super-Detailed HelloTalk Review

Like HelloTalk, Tandem connects language learners with native speakers, which makes finding language partners a breeze. Tandem links users with several potential language exchange partners to talk to either by chat, voice message, or phone calls. They have in-app translation and correction tools, which make communication and the language exchange experience easier and more efficient although the number of free translations is limited per day. The app is sleek and refined when it comes to aesthetics.

See our Super-Detailed Tandem Review

Best Q&A App

HiNative is a resource that connects language learners with native speakers of their target language. It’s perfect for getting answers to quick questions that you may not be able to look up in a book or search the internet for. It works by allowing users to post questions for native speakers to answer. There are pre-made question forms to help you formulate your question, and receiving an answer usually happens very quickly. You can pay it forward by answering questions of those learning your native language. Basic functionality is free, some additional features require a subscription.

See our Super-Detailed HiNative Review

Maybe Try These Mandarin Chinese Learning Apps

Here are some more options that are commonly recommended, but didn’t make our favorites list. Some of them could make good options for learning Chinese.

Busuu is one of the more popular courses out there, but its Chinese course is riddled with errors and not very well done.

See our Super-Detailed Busuu Review

The Fluenz course is pretty good for some languages, but it falls short with Chinese. It completely ignores Chinese characters and has a price tag.

See our Super-Detailed Fluenz Review

Providing topical lessons and a light gamification element, Lingodeer is one of the better options in its class. It’s a great way to start out with a number of languages, including Chinese.

See our Super-Detailed Lingodeer Review

Rocket Languages

Despite audio lessons that offer good explanations and chances to engage, Rocket Chinese just isn’t that good. The exercises quickly become repetitive, and some of the lessons aren’t very well planned out.

See our Super-Detailed Rocket Languages Review

Rosetta Stone Mandarin Chinese

Rosetta Stone is one of the most well-known resources for learning languages. It takes an immersive approach to teaching and is widely used by corporations and individuals alike. High levels of repetition and an absence of translations or explanations are hallmarks of the course. Rosetta Stone course could be most suitable for learners whoˇ don’t mind repetitive exercises and prefer to learn from pictures and context rather than translations and explanations. It’s probably not a good option for anyone wanting to significantly improve their speaking or writing skills, or those looking for an engaging course.

ALR Readers Exclusive Holiday Deal!! Get the Lifetime Subscription for 25 languages for $179 (everywhere else it’s $199 right now!). See details on the website.

See our Super-Detailed Rosetta Stone Mandarin Chinese Review

Super Chinese

Like some other apps, Super Chinese offers gamified lessons available on your smartphone. It’s an affordable and enjoyable way to get started with Chinese. Save 15% with the coupon code ‘alr15’. 

See our Super-Detailed Super Chinese Review

Transparent Language

You’ll probably want to stay away from this one. It has users memorize words and phrases in isolation and has a weak teaching methodology.

See our Super-Detailed Transparent Language Review

edX is an online learning platform that provides free access to university courses. Just like Coursera, there are also Chinese language courses and courses on other subjects taught in Chinese. Upon completion of a course, learners have the option to pay for a certificate.

Anyone can create a course and sell it on Udemy. This means there is a huge variety of courses, both for beginners and higher levels. Quality may vary, but keep your eye out for sales (they’re frequent) if you see a course that interests you.

Best Free(mium) Apps for Learning Mandarin Chinese

Maybe you’d like to learn Chinese but you’re on a budget. Don’t worry, we have a list for that as well. Take a look at our Bargain Basement section and take your pick.

Best Beginner Fun Game App (not for serious learners)

Duolingo chinese.

Similar to Lingodeer, Duolingo uses short activities and gamification to make language learning incredibly accessible. It’s free and super popular, but it doesn’t do Asian languages very well.

See our Super-Detailed Duolingo Chinese Review

Best Easy-to-Use Way to Learn Vocabulary

Memrise is a resource with a massive amount of learning content. The app uses spaced repetition (SRS) flashcards, meaning super-efficient practice, and features tons of free user-created courses. The official Memrise courses have the added bonus of reliable quality audio, some videos, and pictures. Some user-created courses also have these features, but it can be hit or miss. As an additional bonus, the app is particularly well designed and fun to use. The short activities also make it one of the more convenient practice options out there. Of course, you won’t get extensive or deep language practice for free, but it’s a solid option for vocabulary practice.

See our Super-Detailed Memrise Review

Best Simple Premade SRS Flashcards

Chineseskill.

Another gamified app offering convenient practice, ChineseSkill is free and offers solid introductory material. It’s quite similar to both Lingodeer and HelloChinese.

See our Super-Detailed ChineseSkill Review

Many Free Mandarin Chinese Lessons

Coursera is an online platform that offers access to university courses for free. There are Chinese language courses and courses on other subjects taught in Chinese. They offer certification upon completion for those that are willing to pay.

So, What is the Best App for YOU to Learn Mandarin Chinese?

It’s evident from this list that there are apps that touch on just about every aspect of learning Mandarin Chinese. These apps can be extremely helpful in the long run, but they’re often best used in conjunction with other study methods.

To find more great resources for learning Chinese, check out our list of best online Chinese courses , the best podcasts for learning Chinese , and our list of Mandarin Chinese Youtube channels. Get a better understanding of what makes a good Chinese learning program and make a more informed decision of which app will be worth your while.

Although we’ve listed quite a lot of apps to learn Mandarin Chinese, there are probably some quality apps that we don’t know about or forgot to mention here. If you have any suggestions for something we missed, let us know!

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Nick dahlhoff, 8 thoughts on “best apps for learning mandarin chinese: we’ve tried them all”.

SuperChinese is a good app for learning. They have structured lessons, each lesson includes four sections – Vocabulary, Grammar, Text and Test. The words and grammar learnt in first two sections is used in Story/essay based text and then there is a timed test. I am using this app to learn Mandarin and love it!

Yea, Lang-8 was great but for some reason, they stopped accepting new user registrations.

Lang-8 is a great platform for original written material in any language, where you give and get feedback and corrections.

Thanks for the suggestion. I wasn’t a big fan of the book but haven’t tried the app yet.

Chineasy for learning characters?

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to check that out. I’ve used ximalaya FM (喜马拉雅 FM) in the past and found it to be really good. Though, I really haven’t spent as much time exploring the different features and sections of it as I should. There’s just so much content to choose from. I’ll have to update this list to include both of these and a couple other apps I realised I’d forgotten about.

You mentioned all of the good ones. The only one I would add is Qing Ting FM (蜻蜓FM). It’s not a learning app but a radio app geared towards native speakers. Once you get to a certain level, you can get a lot of benefit out listening to children’s 儿童 shows, and I use it everyday to listen to Peppa Pig (which is a nice compliment to the bona fide Peppa Pig episodes on YouTube.)

There are also some text-heavy games that have been translated into Mandarin, such as To The Moon, the Lifeline series, and I think some of the Final Fantasies.

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Free Online Chinese Lessons

This is the ultimate collection of the best free Chinese lessons for beginners. If you are looking for quick, free, and easy-to-understand Chinese lessons online to start your Mandarin learning journey in 2024, then you just found the right place.

Online Beginner Chinese Lessons (+ LOTS of Free Learning Tips)

Starting Chinese learning in 2024 can mark the beginning of an exciting journey. The rising popularity of online Chinese lessons now makes it possible for you to learn this beautiful language from the comfort of your own home.

Thankfully, there are more free learning resources online than ever before due to the pandemic . The downside is that many of those free Chinese lessons out there are junk .

Most lessons don’t give enough details. They throw in a bunch of “preset” Chinese sentences with translations and don’t explain how to actually form them and use them. There’s zero chance you’ll be able to hold a real conversation after finishing those lessons. You are left at sea. 

They. Simply. Don’t. Work.

Let’s be real, you don’t need another phrasebook. You need detail to understand how Chinese works in its entirety, so you can figure out how to say what you want to say from day one.

And that’s not complicated. No need to stress.

With over 50K readers every month, we’re one of the world’s biggest websites about Chinese learning. We’ve helped thousands of people start learning Chinese, improve their Chinese skills, and achieve their goals.

And in this guide, we draw on our expertise to present the best online Chinese lessons for beginners trying to get started from nothing .

These introductory Chinese lessons cover the various areas of basic Chinese: pronunciation, conversation, vocabulary, and grammar. Each lesson is complete with detailed, yet easy-to-follow explanations on all essential language points. Best of all, they won’t cost you a dime. All you have to do is follow the framework and start learning!

3X Your Chinese Progress!

To serious learners:  

Feel free to dip your toes with our free introductory lessons. But if you’re ready to get serious and want to become conversationally fluent in Chinese, you really need to take a structured course with a real teacher!

We’ve done our research and handpicked the best Chinese courses online. Find the best course for you to skyrocket your studying success!

View All Chinese Lessons

Check out our free online Chinese lessons designed for beginners to get a head start on your Mandarin learning journey. We’ve also included valuable learning tips. Enjoy!

Intro to the Chinese Language

Welcome to the jungle of Mandarin Chinese! Wait, Mandarin, Chinese, or Mandarin Chinese? Are they even the same thing? In the first chapter of this Chinese lesson series, you’ll learn some basic concepts of the language of China. Let’s jump in.

Chinese Greetings and Essentials

Here’s your basic Chinese survival kit – common Chinese greetings beyond “ni hao”, how to say “yes” and “no”, and how to say “please” and “thank you”, etc. This lesson covers the bare minimum you should know before going anywhere Chinese-speaking!

Chinese Alphabet & Pronunciation

Well, Chinese doesn’t really have an alphabet, but there is this Romanization system called Pinyin you must know to learn the pronunciation of words. Don’t let Pinyin get you – discover how to pronounce Q, X, Z sounds in Chinese, as well as that tricky Ü thing with this lesson.

Chinese Tones

You probably already know that Chinese is a tonal language. Many words appear to have the same basic pronunciation with varied pitches. It seems like a small difference, but it’s quite important. Here’s an introduction to the four tones of Chinese.

Basic Chinese Grammar

Not the most exciting topic, but let’s get real – you’ll need it. This quick Chinese grammar lesson will get you through the basic grammar rules in minutes that might otherwise take you weeks to figure out on your own. You’ll find they’re not quite so intimidating. 

Saying Your Name in Chinese

You wouldn’t think there would be much trouble stating your name, but it can actually be quite hard for an average Chinese person to remember or pronounce your name unless you say it the Chinese way. So check it out…

Talking about Yourself in Chinese

You’ll learn some super useful Chinese conversation starters and how to talk about yourself and your family. Learn how to say “my name is…”, how to say where you live, what you do, and how to talk about the things you like doing.

Countries in Chinese

This lesson will show you how to let everybody around you know where you are from. We enlist all the country names in Chinese from Argentina to Madagascar. Plus you’ll learn some little tricks to help you remember some of them.

Professions in Chinese

One of the best conversation starters in China, guaranteed. Learn how to say “I am an engineer at Siemens”, and talk about what you like or dislike about your job, and you’ll always have something to contribute to a conversation!

The Verb “to Have” in Chinese

Probably the most important verb to have in your Chinese toolbox – “yǒu” is used in a lot of places where English speakers wouldn’t expect it. This lesson shows you how to express possession and existence in Chinese.

Connecting Verbs in Chinese

In this lesson, you’ll learn the rule for using two or more verbs in one Chinese sentence. You’ll be able to say that you’re going somewhere to do something. You’ll also learn some incredibly useful verbs. Hoorah!

Negating Statements in Chinese

You can turn a positive statement into a negative statement with two negation words in Chinese: “bù” and “méi”. This lesson will show you how to say that you don’t like sports, or that you don’t have the time to play sports.  

Forming Questions with “ne”

Let us introduce you to the world of particles. Once you master this one, you’ll be able to ask simple questions in Chinese. You’ll also see how easy it’d be to bounce a question imposed on you back to your conversation partner. Fun!

Giving Commands in Chinese

One of the easiest grammar points in Chinese, but we’ll walk you through it anyway. Learn how to tell someone to do or not to do something in China and sound as polite or impolite as you need to be!

“I Don’t Understand” in Chinese

Once you step into the Chinese-speaking territory, you’re bound to encounter communication problems at one point or another. You can do so much better than a blunt “ting bu dong”. Learn how to respond naturally when your Chinese deserts you with this lesson.

Counting in Chinese – 0 to 1,000,000,000

Want to count in Chinese? Who doesn’t? Chinese numbers are actually much easier than their English counterparts to make you go. This lesson will have you covered for everything between zero and one billion – that’s probably all the numbers you need!

Chinese Measure Words

Measure words are used a lot more in Chinese than in English – so much so that there are 150+ of them. Never fear! In this lesson, we’ll give you some tricks for using the most common Chinese measure words to help you get by in most conversations.

Talking about Age in Chinese

In this lesson, you’ll get a quick introduction to age in Chinese. You’ll learn why it’s important and how to ask specific people their age, using both polite and informal language. There are some interesting rules for how to raise the question correctly.

Telling the Time in Chinese

Once you’ve known your way around numbers, telling the time in Chinese becomes pretty easy – just watch out for a couple of curveballs coming in your way. This lesson will cover all the essential time expressions like “just now” and “soon” to keep you on your toes.

Days of the Week in Chinese

Chinese is fairly logical when it comes to naming the days of the week. Well, there are three names for each day (it’s nuts), but you’ll find them pretty intuitive and predictable. So here’s how to say Monday to Sunday in Chinese.

Dates in Chinese

Simple, but pretty essential. Learn how to say dates, months, and years in Chinese. Combine this with the time and days of the week lessons above, and you should feel very comfortable making appointments or holidays reservations.

Comparing Things in Chinese

How do you say when someone is smarter than another, or taller than another, or less beautiful than another? In this lesson, you’ll learn how to compare two people or two things that aren’t equal as well as superlatives (who is the smartest?)

Asking for Directions in Chinese

Where’s the famous dim sum restaurant? Where is a public restroom? Learn how to ask for directions in Chinese before you start packing. Simply learn these essential keywords and phrases because you’ll always need to get somewhere!

Ordering in a Restaurant

Get a crash course in how to order in a Chinese restaurant using “xiǎng” and “yào”(want). You’ll learn some useful food & drink vocabulary, and how to catch the waiter or waitress’s attention when you need to. (It’s different than how you do it in English.)

Topic-Comment Structure

Topic-comment structure in Chinese can be a little tricky to wrap your head around since it sounds “off” to an English ear. Make sure you’ve got a firm grasp on the basic“S-V-O” before you dive in. You’ll then be able to express yourself in Chinese in the most natural way.

Conversation Filler: “Nèi Ge”

Every language has an array of filler words that help to grease the wheels of conversation. The most popular filler word in Chinese is “nèi ge”. This final lesson will teach you how to slip “nèi ge” naturally into your conversation to help you sound more Chinese than ever.

More From Forbes

Luka doncic visits china with other jordan brand athletes.

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Luka Doncic takes a selfie on the Great Wall of China during the Jordan Brand China Family Tour.

Luka Doncic and other Jordan Brand athletes, such as Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson and Paulo Banchero, are participating in the brand’s inaugural China Family Tour. The players will tour locations in Beijing and Shanghai while connecting with China's youth.

Doncic and his peers started their Chinese tour in Shanghai, where they visited the Nike Shanghai campus, took boat rides along The Bund — a waterfront area and a protected historical district in central Shanghai — and met with fans.

After arriving in Beijing, Doncic, Tatum, Banchero, and Williamson wlaked along the Great Wall of China on Saturday. Afterward, Doncic stoped by a Jordan Brand store in Beijing to meet and greet fans. One fan grew emotional after meeting the Dallas Mavericks’ star. Fighting back tears, she said, “all her dreams came true,” after shaking Doncic’s hand.

Luka Doncic shakes hands with an emotional fan in Beijing.

While in China, the Jordan Brand ambassadors will also tour the Jordan World of Flight Beijing Sanlitun — a four story, 1,000 square meter retail store — the Next Stop Dongdan streetball tournament finals, youth basketball camps and cultural landmarks.

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Despite dei backlash, inclusive office designs are gaining ground, ‘after baywatch’ documentary reveals what it was really like to be part of a cultural phenomenon.

“It's exciting to welcome Jayson, Luka, Zion and Paolo to China and celebrate the growth of both the game of basketball and Jordan Brand here,” Jordan Brand VP and GM of Greater China Ari Chen said in a statement .

“They represent the greatness that is the hallmark of Jordan Brand. This tour, while celebrating the community we've built in China, also showcases the resonance of basketball culture across the entire globe. It's a universal language and shows that the future of the Brand is limitless.”

Doncic signed a multi-year agreement with Jordan Brand in 2019. He debuted his his signature sneaker from the brand, the Luka 1, during the first round of the NBA playoffs in 2022. The Luka 2 hit shelves in 2023. Nike and Jordan Brand released the third edition of his signature shoe in July 2024.

Doncic previously visited China as a rookie with the Dallas Mavericks as part of the NBA China Games 2018. In October that year, the Mavericks played the Philadelphia 76ers in two preseason games in Shanghai and Shenzen. It marked the first time either team played in China.

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3 of the best Hong Kong crime movies of the 2000s and how director Derek Yee created them

Former actor Derek Yee injected a gritty realism into his crime films, not glamorising criminals and gang life. We recall three of his best

We recall Yee’s best three crime films from the 2000s.

1. One Nite in Mongkok (2004)

Yee’s foray into the world of triad crime films isn’t a genre work – it’s a deeply thought-out drama about the ugliness of criminal life.

The characters, both police and criminal, are naturalistic and express the worries of real people, and the violence avoids any stylised forms of beautification – it’s brutal and nasty.

The triad films of the 1990s were criticised for glorifying gang life, but One Nite in Mongkok does just the opposite. Criminal life is portrayed as grim and scuzzy, and Yee dispenses with all the triad “codes of honour” that usually permeate such works.

Yee’s underworld is a place where violence and fear are the go-to methods of control, friendships mean nothing, and the weak are physically beaten into submission.

According to Yee, the story was based on true events. “A few years ago, a Criminal Investigation Division policeman told me that cops in police films are too removed from reality,” Yee told the Udine Far East Film Festival’s Tim Youngs.

The police officer told Yee a story about how the police were trying to track down a hitman who had come to Hong Kong to kill a triad boss, but they couldn’t get any leads.

A random encounter in a 7-Eleven store led to the hit man’s arrest. “They found him by chance. That interested me,” said Yee. “That’s where the film started.”

“Mong Kok at night is chaotic and has many triads,” Yee said of the film’s location. “Triads go there as business is good. But in real life, Mong Kok is not that scary and the triads are not that frightening. We exaggerated that so Hong Kong people would be convinced by the story.”

2. Protégé (2007)

As with One Nite in Mongkok , Yee focused on drama rather than action in the undercover cop story Protégé . He described it as a film that exists to simply show that “drugs are evil”; there’s only one full-scale action sequence, and even that is central to the plot rather than being an attempt to thrill.

“Writer-director Derek Yee, considered a master at injecting new life into moribund genres, brings an acute sense of dramatic and commercial realities to this strongly ethical yet undidactic look at the narcotics trade and its effect on a disparate group of users, dealers and police,” said the Post review in 2007.

Daniel Wu, one of Yee’s favourite actors, plays Nick, a police officer working undercover to bring down the drug smuggling network of crime kingpin Quin (Andy Lau Tak-wah). Nick is so deeply embedded in Quin’s business that the drug lord has chosen him as his heir, and is training him to take over when he retires.

Nick plays his undercover role of deputy gang boss to the hilt, but he becomes increasingly disgusted with Quin’s drug dealing when he meets Fan (Zhang Jingchu), a heroin addict trying to kick the habit so she can look after her young child.

Nick’s disgust is heightened during a trip to the poppy farms in Thailand with Quin, where he sees his family holidaying like royalty on the backs of the suffering of addicts like Fan.

Yee researched the drug trade in depth to make his film ring true, and spent time meeting addicts, dealers, and members of the drug squad.

“You really have to find [the truth] out there among the various walks of life; you unearth stories from contacts, books and so on. That’s my passion,” he told the Post.

3. Triple Tap (2010)

Yee made the crime thriller Triple Tap in 2010, and described himself to the Post at the time as still being in his “soapbox” stage. He felt obliged to tell viewers about the problems of Hong Kong society, he said, and that credo applied to action films as much as dramas.

“Yee made Triple Tap as a high-octane heist film and the action starts with a deadly hold-up of a security van carrying a fortune in bonds,” wrote the Post’s Clarence Tsui in 2007. “But the director says he also wanted to highlight how money, at the end of the day, is power.”

Triple Tap , which is a loose follow-up to 2000’s Double Tap, a film that Yee wrote for director Law Chi-leung, is a straightforward work, and he sticks to the well-worn rules of the genre. The result is a highly effective psychological drama which pushes all the right buttons.

Returning home from a shooting competition, he comes across the robbery of an armoured car. A good citizen, he pulls out his pistol and kills the armed robbers, saving a wounded motorcycle police officer in the process.

The press lauds Kwan as a hero, but investigating officer Jerry Chang (Daniel Wu) unexpectedly puts him on trial for murder. Kwan is acquitted, but it transpires that Chang’s suspicions about the true motive behind his “civic duty” were right.

Yee’s observation that money and power corrupt even the most outstanding among us is hardly original, but the idea is still forcefully put in Triple Tap .

In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.

Travel Tips to Kabardino-Balkaria: More than Mt. Elbrus!

If you’ve traveled to the North Caucasus before, there is a good chance you’ve already been to Kabardino-Balkaria, and you didn’t even know it!  Kabardino-Balkaria lies in the center of the North Caucasus region, is home to Mt. Elbrus, but more than that is a treasure chest of travel possibilities.  Here is our guide to traveling through the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, or 9 travel tips to this beautiful land:

1. How do I get there?

Kabardino-Balkaria hosts a large number of both foreign and Russian travelers every year, and has an improving infrastructure able to handle the incoming masses.  Let’s start with the obvious.  You might be a mountain climber or skier coming to enjoy the slopes of Mt. Elbrus.  That means you’re likely arriving on an airplane to Russia.  Here are your travel options:

A. Plane – We advise you fly into the Mineralni Vodi (MRV) airport in the Stavropol Region, which is about 45 minutes from the border of Kabardino-Balkaria.  MRV is the largest airport in the North Caucasus, and has daily direct flights to and from all 3 airpots in Moscow (SVO, DME, and VKO), direct flights from St. Petersburg, and several international flight routes as well, including from Istanbul, Dubai, Greece, Tel Aviv, and Bishkek.  The MRV airport has a growing infrastructure and is the most obvious choice to fly into if going to Elbrus.  From MRV, it’s a 2 hr. drive to Nalchik, and a 3.5 hr. drive to Mt. Elbrus.

That being said, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, Nalchik (NAL), also has a small regional airport with a daily flight to/from Moscow as well as weekly flights to Istanbul. As is to be expected in most smaller, regional airports around Russia, the service standard at a small airport like this will be minimal.  As a result, we recommend you flying in and out of MRV if able.  It’s a 2 hr. drive to Elbrus from Nalchik.  You can also fly into other regional airports which are 2 hrs. from Nalchik, such as OGZ in North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz) or IGT in Ingushetia (Magas).

B.  Car/Public Transport – If you have a car, are using a taxi, or are hitch-hiking your way to Kabardino-Balkaria, the region is accessible by a variety of roads and vehicles.  A major Russian federal highway E50 runs through Pyatigorsk into Kabardino-Balkaria, and can take you towards Mt. Elbrus, Nalchik, and deeper into the North Caucasus.  There are daily mini-buses, or “marshrutkas”, that travel to Nalchik from Pyatigorsk, Vladikavkaz, Grozny, and Magas, if you’re coming from a neighboring republic.  From the main Nalchik bus station, there is a marshrutka that goes to Terskol (i.e. Mt. Elbrus) daily around 12:30 pm; for that matter,  marshrutkas run daily into every valley of this beautiful republic.  For the seasoned international traveler, you can drive from the country of Georgia up the famed “Georgian Military Highway” through the heart of the Caucasus Mountains, cross the border into Russia at the “Verkhni Lars” border stop, and be in Nalchik in about 2.5 hours as well. 

Anyone traveling on their own should download the “Yandex” taxi app, which is Russia’s version of Uber, and has a very user-friendly app with affordable prices.  In smaller villages/towns where Yandex’s service doesn’t reach, just ask a local and they’ll direct you to a friend or relative who can taxi you where you need to go!

C.  Train – Kabardino-Balkaria is also very accessible by the famous cross-country Russian train system if that’s your preferred method of travel.  Almost all trains to the North Caucasus pass through Mineralni Vodi in the Stavropol region to the north, so make sure wherever you are coming from, Mineralni Vodi is one of the stops.  Despite Nalchik having a train station, the city is about 45 minutes from the main railway route that runs diagonal through the North Caucasus, and as a result it’s a bit convoluted to get a train directly to Nalchik.  That being said, the town Prokhladni is a regular stop on trains going to/coming from Baku, Makhachkala, Grozny, Nazran, and Vladikavkaz, so you can always hop off there and find your way by public transport or taxi.

2.  What are the best places to stay?

This list could get exhaustive, fast. 🙂  Let’s first look at an overview of the republic’s geography, followed by hotel recommendations:

A. Nalchik – This is the capital city of Kabardino-Balkaria, with a population of around 250,000.  Nalchik is growing and new, modern hotels are being built regularly.  Here are some of our recommendations:

-Modern and comfortable:  Azimut , Butik Otel

-Budget with less frills:  Hotel Rossia , Korona

You could comfortably spend a week in Nalchik, while doing day trips into Kabardino-Balkaria’s beautiful mountain valleys.

B.  Baksan Valley – This is the most traveled road in Kabardino-Balkaria, the road to Mt. Elbrus.  If you have questions about its safety because of travel warnings, please see our detailed blog here of the drive to erase any doubts or fears.  Needless to say, because of the draw of Mt. Elbrus, there are a huge variety of lodging options at the end of this valley, from 4-star to mid-range to budget to hostel.  Here are just a few we’ll recommend from our experience:

-Modern and comfortable 4-star-ish:  Azau Star , Kristall 139

-Budget with less frills 3-star-ish:   Laguna , Povorot

If you’re a mountain climber with your sites set on the summit of Elbrus, you’ll have to spend at least 3-4 nights at Elbrus’s famous base camp at 13,000 feet.  The “barrel huts” are not easy to book directly with, and we highly recommend you do your climb (and hence, have your bookings handled) through a trusted climbing company.  Here are two shelters at base camp we recommend:

-Modern and comfortable:  Leaprus

-Budget with less frills:  Heart of Elbrus Lodge

If you’re interested in climbing Mt. Elbrus and staying in these barrel huts, click  here  to see our climbing itineraries, pricing, and group dates.

C.  Chegem Valley – Chegem Valley is the adjacent valley to Elbrus’s Baksan Valley, and is famous for its beautiful waterfalls as well as being Russia’s top paragliding location.  The “ Paradrome ” has modest accommodations for those wanting to get to know this beautiful valley for a longer period of time.

D.  Upper Balkaria, or Cherek Valley – This is another beautiful mountain gorge not too far from Nalchik.  There is an authentic lodging complex in Upper Balkaria called Tau-El, with amazing local food for meals as well.

E.  Border Zone lodging – Several of Kabardino-Balkaria’s mountain gorges run into the border zone with neighboring country Georgia, i.e. an area that foreigners cannot enter without a special permit from the local government (often taking 2 months to receive).  There is a famous mountaineering lodge in Bezengi Valley, where several generations of Russian mountain climbers have honed their craft in the Caucasus Mountains.  Perpendicular to Baksan Valley (about 25 minutes from the base of Mt. Elbrus) is Adyr-Suu Valley, where there is a lodge for back-country skiers to stay, while trying their hands (and feet!) on the untouched snow of that valley.  Both these valleys require border permits for foreigners, but are possible to access for the more adventurous!

3.  Top cities to visit?

Most locals would agree that Nalchik is the main city of significance to visit in Kabardino-Balkaria, but let’s be honest, even more would say, “Just go to the mountains!”  Tirnauz is the capital of the Elbrus district, and is an interesting town to spend some time in, with its unique location in the mountains and place in Soviet history as a once-booming mining town.  The main thing to consider in visiting Nalchik and other cities in the lowlands, is the chance to experience Kabardian culture and food.  Whereas the deeper you go into the valleys, the more you’ll encounter Balkar culture and food.

4.  Best local foods to try?

There are 3 types of food that come to mind, when spending time in Kabardino-Balkaria:

A. Khychiny – This is one of the staple national dishes of the Balkar people, and what you’ll inevitably be served if guests of local Balkars.  It’s a thin buttery flat bread, sometimes cooked with fillings of cottage cheese, fresh greens, or potatoes.  It is often slathered in butter, but wow is that some tasty greasy goodness! 🙂

B.  Shashlik – Shashlik is a MUST for any visit anywhere in the North Caucasus!  Most people would agree that it’s the national food of the entire region.  Shashlik is meat shish kabobs; while pork and turkey can be found in some parts of the Caucasus, lamb or chicken are the preferred shashlik meats of choice in Kabardino-Balkaria. 

C.  Soup – No matter where you are in Russia, you’re sure to find a local soup that people love.  Kabardino-Balkaria is no different.  Especially in the winter months in the mountain valleys, there’s nothing better than to come inside from the cold weather and warm your body up to a bowl of hearty Caucasus soup.  Whether Georgian kharcho or local Balkar lakhman, make sure to try your hand at one of these soups with a side of fresh baked bread/lavash!

5.  Top Hole-In-The-Wall restaurants:

Of course, for a republic of this size, we’re bound to leave at least a few great local joints off our list, but here are a few to get you started. ***Note:  Restaurants in the North Caucasus are much better known for their food than their service, so prepare for tasty food, but manage your expectations about service:

-Elbrus – Kogutai Restaurant at Mt. Cheget – While this isn’t a hole-in-the-wall restaurant per se, it’s one of many to choose from in the Cheget tourist village, and we have found them to provide consistently good food and service.  Kogutai has a nice interior, and maybe most important, an English-language menu with good pictures. 🙂  There also is a nice outdoor patio with fantastic views of the surrounding mountains.

-Nalchik #1 – Tameris Restaurant – This is a cafe with a relaxed atmosphere in the capital Nalchik.  Local tour company Elbrus Elevation has taken foreign groups there on multiple occasions and always had good experiences.  Address is ul. Kuliyeva 3. 

-Nalchik #2 – Cafe-Bar Oasis – You have to know where this restaurant is to find it, but once inside, you won’t regret it!  There is a unique cafeteria-style ordering process, that includes several dishes being cooked on the spot once ordered.  You can sample local Kabardian dishes here.  The seating area is very modern and a pleasant atmosphere to have a meal in.  Address is ul. Kuliyeva 2. 

-Upper Balkaria – Tau-El Restaurant – This is the restaurant part of the Tau-El Tourist Complex in Upper Balkaria.  Whether spending the night or just passing through, make sure to stop here for a meal!

6.  Must-See Sites

This republic is so chock full of “must-see” destinations, it’s impossible to narrow the list down.  Here are just a few suggestions to get you started: (***Mt. Elbrus is a no-brainer and we’re assuming that’s on your list)

A. El-Tyubu and Paradrome – This is an amazing area towards the end of Chegem Valley.  Many tourists visit the famous Chegem Waterfalls and don’t drive any further down this gorge, which really is a shame.  El-Tyubu is a picturesque Balkar village with several historical sites to see, including some ancient mausoleums.  The real gem of the area, though, is the Paradrome , which is Russia’s premier paragliding destination.  The combination of the scenic surrounding mountains and constant winds produces almost daily conditions to sail through the beautiful Caucasus sky.  Highly recommend!

B.  Upper Balkaria – Also known as Cherek Valley, the entire drive to the actual village of Upper Balkaria is one big destination.  First, you can spend time at the 3 consecutive “ Blue Lakes ”, one of which is one of Russia’s deepest lakes with an underground spring.  Then, the drive itself becomes an adventure, as you pass by steep rock walls with a huge drop-off on the other side.  If you’re able to walk this part of the road, that is a bonus!  Once you’ve made your way through the valley walls, the region opens up into a beautiful panoramic view.  Many years ago, there were multiple villages in this region, but they’ve since been condensed into one main village.  You can see some of the ancient Balkar towers that their ancestors used to live in as well.

C.  Djili-Suu – Although hard to pronounce and not easy to get to, Djili-Suu is one of those places in the North Caucasus that people rave about that you “have to” visit.  It’s actually on the North side of Mt. Elbrus, and more accessible from the Mineral Waters region (2 hrs. from Kislovodsk).  The base camp for Elbrus climbers summiting the mountain from the North side is at Djili-Suu.  This area is famous in Russia for its numerous natural healing springs, as well as unique climate conditions that make for beneficial, long holidays for seeking a respite from their daily grind.  There are wide swaths of land available for camping, with probably the most unrivaled views of Mt. Elbrus in the North Caucasus.  Make sure to check this out!

7.  Off-the-beaten path destinations

A. King’s Waterfalls (Tsarskie), or Gedmisht – Probably the valley in Kabardino-Balkaria with the least amount of hype is the Malka Valley, which is the northernmost valley and mainly runs through the Kabardian lowlands.  At the point where the villages end, though (Khabas), the asphalt turns into dirt and the hills start to rise, culminating with the incredible King’s Waterfalls, or as one friend put it, Avatar Waterfalls.  These stunning waterfalls are best visited in the early summer, when everything is lush green and the water flow is strong, with many streams of water flowing down the earth’s surface.  The different colors are incredible and it’s hard to look away.  Once you’ve enjoyed the waterfalls, enjoy a meal of shashlik at one of the nearby lunch huts.  Having an off-road vehicle is ideal to visit these falls, but worth the time and effort!

B.  One-seater chair lift at Elbrus – As the infrastructure at Mt. Elbrus has modernized, some of the more “authentic” experiences have gone to the way-side.  This is one experience still available, though!  From the 2nd (11,000 ft.) to 3rd level (12,500 ft.) of Mt. Elbrus (whether skiing, going to base camp, or just touring), there is a single-seater chair lift for 100 rubles each way (less than $2).  This is an amazing experience if you have the time.  It’s 8-10 minutes each way, and a surreal experience of the majestic Caucasus mountain range surrounding you, skiers silently passing you by underneath, and in general enjoying the silent expanse of nature all around.  The chair lifts are from the Soviet times and so it feels like something from a different era.  For mountain climbers, the newer group cable car gives better access to most of base camp, but several huts are pretty close to this chair lift, so it still may be a good option for you.

C.  Abandoned Mines above Tirnauz – Tirnauz is about 1 hr. from Mt. Elbrus, and a town everyone drives through to and from the mountain.  Although today it looks old and half-abandoned, it was a booming mining town in the 20th century.  About a 45-minute drive above the city with an off-road vehicle, you can see the remains of the mining operations.  Learning about this history combined with the breath-taking views of the Baksan Valley and even into Georgia, you’ll wonder why more people aren’t visiting this place.  This is a great spot to see eagles soaring in the sky, as well as admire the Soviet city plan of Tirnauz from above.

8.  What do I need border zone passes to visit?

In Russia, any area within 5-10 km of a neighboring country, without a clearly delineated border (i.e. in the mountains) is considered a special border zone, and patrolled by Russian border guards.  This area IS accessible to all Russian citizens with their passports, but is NOT legally accessible to foreign citizens UNLESS you have a special permit from the FSB (Federal Security Bureau).  These permits are accessible, either through a tour operator or local friend, but require you to submit your application 45-60 days in advance.

Areas in Kabardino-Balkaria that are worth a visit if you have a border zone pass:

A.  Bezengi Wall – This is at the end of the Bezengi Valley, and holds a place of lore among Russian mountain climbers.  Many mountain guides go through training in this valley.  Five of the Caucasus Mountain’ range’s highest seven peaks are a part of the Bezengi Wall, so you can imagine the draw it has for climbers. There are great areas for trekking and camping in this area. 

B.  Adyr-Suu Gorge – This remote valley runs perpendicular to Baksan Valley and is about 25 minutes from the base of Mt. Elbrus.  It’s marked at the entrance by a relic of the past, a car lift from Soviet days that auto-cranks your car (and you) about 50 meters up the mountain.  After 45-60 minutes of driving on gravel road, the gorge opens up into a flat valley with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains.  The Adyr-Suu Alpine Lodge is at the end of this valley and where back-country skiers base out of during the acclimatization phase of their Mt. Elbrus ski tours.  This is truly a place where you can experience untouched powder!

C.  Mt. Cheget (Elbrus) – Cheget is a neighboring mountain to Mt. Elbrus and where many climbers will acclimatize, both at its base and while doing some hikes.  It also is famous in Russia for its free-ride terrain for more experienced skiers.  Standard access to the chair lifts and mountain are available to all (i.e. mountain climbers don’t need to worry about accidentally crossing into the zone), but anyone wanting to summit the peak of Cheget OR visit the beautiful Cheget Lake needs a border permit. 

Foreigners violating the border zone areas is considered a serious offense in Russia; make sure to do your due diligence if wanting to visit one of these areas!  We highly recommend using a local tour operator and always traveling with a local person if visiting one of these areas.

9.  Any cultural “do’s” or “don’t’s” to be aware of

Kabardino-Balkaria is a fascinating republic with a combination of traditional and modern society.  The more you interact with local people, the more you’ll see a mixture of Muslim faith, post-Soviet mentality, and ancient local traditions all wrapped together.   

Kabardians mainly live in the lowlands (Nalchik, Baksan, and lowland villages), while Balkars primarily live in the mountain valleys (Elbrus, Chegem, Upper Balkaria, etc.).  There is a large population of Russians in the region as well.  Foreigners visit every area of the region regularly, and so local people are used to and will welcome your presence.

Come with an open mind to learn about these peoples, their traditions, and their land.  You won’t regret your trip to Kabardino-Balkaria!

***Want to learn more?  Here are several self-published resources from the podcast “ CaucasTalk ” related to Kabardino-Balkaria:

– Travel Tips to Kabardino-Balkaria (audio version of this blog)

– History of Mt. Elbrus (Part 1)

– History of Mt. Elbrus (Part 2)

– Interview with Local Elbrus guide

– Climbing Elbrus: Interview with American guide

– Who are the Kabardians? (Part 1)

– Who are the Kabardians? (Part 2)

– Skiing in the North Caucasus (Elbrus and more)

READY TO EXPERIENCE KABARDINO-BALKARIA FOR YOURSELF?

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Travel Information

• We no longer offer travel services to Russia. See Caucasus Quest Tours for new destinations
• Is it Safe to Travel to the Caucasus in 2024?
• Climbing Kazbek & Kilimanjaro: Comparing two 5,000+ meter peaks
• How to Train to climb Mt. Kazbek in Georgia

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ALL Travel Services to Russia and Mt. Elbrus have been indefinitely suspended as of Feb. 2022.

Explore our new tour branch Caucasus Quest to climb Mt. Kazbek (5,054 meters) in Georgia or for immersive cultural touring experiences in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

Visiting Russia - Nalchik, Capital of Kabardino-Balkaria

By Koryo Tours

Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria

Visiting Russia – Nalchik

Yoshkar-ola | cheboksary  |  astrakhan | elista | stalingrad (volograd)  | abakan  |  nalchik  | validkavkaz  | makhachkala  |  grozny.

Nalchik is a small city of around 240,000 people and serves as the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, one of the lesser-known republics spread across the beautiful North Caucasus area of Russia, the mountain range that separates the former soviet states of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan from the Russian Federation.

This region has incredible diversity in ethnic groups and is a melting pot at the edge of empire. While there have been civilisations in the Caucasus for millennia Nalchik as a city is only a century old, having been a Russian fort since 1724. Today’s Nalchik is a mostly peaceful and relaxing place, being in the foothills of the mountains it has many areas of great beauty and multiple sanatoria for people looking to take the waters, over the last century it has certainly had its share of turbulence though, being occupied by Romanian troops fighting on the side of the Nazis, who embarked on an effort to exterminate the ancient community of Mountain Jews in the area (unsuccessfully), plus a 2005 Islamic militant attack on Russian security forces.

These days Nalchik is known as a clean city, a place for relaxing, and the starting point of expeditions to summit Mt. Elbrus, the tallest mountain in Europe, which lies within Kabardino-Balkaria.

Kabardians make up the largest ethnic group at just under 50% of the city’s population, followed by Russians, Balkars, other Caucasian nationalities as well as Ukrainians, Mountain Jews still live in the area but in very small numbers now, most having emigrated to Israel.

Arriving/Departing

Nalchik Airport (NAL) is a small one but is fully functional for getting in and out, usually the foreigners arriving here will be mountaineers heading for Elbrus.

The Airport is only 3km from the city centre so you could even walk into town from here, otherwise, there are taxis and marshrutkas waiting for arrivals. Flights arrive only from Moscow and St. Petersburg usually, the Caucasus has other larger airports for other international flights (such as those to Sochi). Nalchik has a railway station, dating from 1915, with links to Moscow and across the Caucasus. A good option for travelling around the region in a relaxing manner (usually slower than taking a marshrutka between cities though) For getting around inside Nalchik there are public buses all over the place, easy to use and very cheap. Otherwise most of the centre is very walkable, the main ‘high street’ is Lenin Avenue, which runs for several km through the centre of the city.

Concord Square

The centre of Nalchik and a good place to start a walking tour of the city, with the Kabardino-Balkaria parliament building on one side and Lenin stands at the other, fountains in the middle and Lenin Avenue cutting through the square

Religious Buildings

The central buildings of the main religions practised in Nalchik are both fine examples of their respective architectural styles; the Central Mosque and the Cathedral of Mary Magdalene are both worth visiting. Dress codes apply.

Not actually in Nalchik, but only 50km or so away so the city is the ideal base for starting an expedition. This is Europe’s highest mountain and a dormant volcano. There are cable car/chairlift options to get t the top for those who don’t wish to do it the hard way. It is possible to get up and down this mountain n a single day, making it certainly the simplest of the 7 continental highest peaks to climb.

Museum of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic

Great for explaining where you are and the history of the area. Mostly in Russian only though and does tend to assume some knowledge in advance. Still a good stop to get some intro into the complex history of this city and area in general.

Atazhukin Garden

A large park complex running for more than 2km along the eastern side of the city, alongside the Nalchik River. A very pleasant place with so much to see and do. The basic Nalchik Zoo is here, walking trails, restaurants and cafes, theatres, a very retro funfair, and a rickety but reliable cable car running up to a lovely viewpoint to see over the city and out to Mt. Elbrus.

Topped by a restaurant building built in the shape of a Kabardian warrior. An excellent few hours can be spent exploring this park and mingling with the locals of all ages who do their relaxing here.

Koryo Tours Russia Tours

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