Chinese Reading Practice

Learn to read Chinese here using the material below to practice and develop your Chinese reading skills. Remember that consistency is everything when it comes to learning and Chinese is no exception.

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Stories

A fox and a tiger – A children’s story with some very useful sentences and words. Intermediate

Introducing Uncle Adam – Useful words and simplistic structure. If nothing else, you will learn the word “museum” and hopefully a few idioms that can be thrown into daily conversations. Intermediate

A short excerpt from Robinson Crusoe – Great intermediate passage with simplistic structures. Ideal for people making the jump from beginner to intermediate. Intermediate

Why do we celebrate Spring Festival? – The story of the infamous monster “Nian” and how it’s defeat gave rise to the Spring Festival. Lots of good Chinese words to be learnt while also learning a traditional Chinese story. Intermediate

Play the lute to a cow – The story behind the idiom 对牛弹琴，lots of musical and descriptive vocabulary in a fairly short story. Intermediate +

Hagrid’s introduction – The story scene from Harry Potter where Hagrid finds Harry after trying to contact him for weeks. Lots of different Chinese characters packed into a relatively short piece of writing. Intermediate

Santa is coming – Not quite a Chinese story but an informative piece about Christmas written as a homework assignment. Lots of Christmas terminology and many adjectives to be learnt. Intermediate +

The family of hedgehogs – A short Chinese children’s story about a family of hedgehogs. Intermediate

The 3 bears – A story about 3 bears who each go their own way and become independent. Some of the sentences are quite hard to comprehend initially so make sure to reread it. Intermediate +

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Conversation – A conversation from this classic Chinese movie. Intermediate +

Secondhand Car – Ever wanted to buy a car? Make sure you don’t buy a haunted one. Intermediate +

Scientific

Don’t clean eggs! – A fairly sizable scientific passage about why eggs should not be cleaned upon purchase. Intermediate +

Back from “Mars” – A news article regarding China’s latest experiments with the goal of one day reaching Mars. The sentence structure is definitely a bit harder and it is intended for Chinese adults. Work through patiently. Advanced

Danger on the ground – A scientific text about ostriches. Easy sentence structures and some unusual characters combine to make this both an easy and hard piece of writing to understand. Intermediate

Earth’s “Cousin” – Some astronomical information about a planet remarkably similar to ours. Intermediate

Business/Politics

Obama and Abe pay respects at Pearl Harbor – Learn some military terminology and maybe even a small amount of history with this Chinese news article. Intermediate +

Some political dates in modern Chinese history – A few dates that are key to understanding the history of the evolution of modern China. Not a long piece, but one full of useful vocabulary. Intermediate +

Theresa May’s message to China – Theresa May’s speech wishing China a happy new year. This is a great transcript to read through and learn some political/business vocabulary. Intermediate +

What are bitcoins? – Lots of technical words relating to computers and currency in this Chinese reading passage. Advanced

China-Ecuador Cooperation – An article published in Ecuadorian newspapers preceding a Chinese state visit to Ecuador. Lots of lovely political vocabulary and excellent descriptive words. Advanced

The Blurb of “My Life Philosophy” by 马 云 – A sample of what might be found inside this book. Lots of inspirational language. Intermediate

Hillary’s concession speech (2016) – The entire transcript of Hillary’s speech in Chinese. A long piece about politics and the election. Lots of good political words to learn and lots of ways to show gratitude. Advanced

Chinese and Russian cooperation promise – A high level Chinese reading passage about China and Russia. Lots of difficult terminology. Advanced

China’s biggest trade partner – A tricky piece with economical and business terms. Lots to learn and most likely a lot to puzzle over too. Advanced

Historical

The An lushan Rebellion – A huge time of turmoil for China, this text is very interesting and is also full of useful sentence structures and characters. Advanced

World War 2 – A fairly long piece of Chinese writing regarding World War 2. There is a lot of interesting characters to be read and learnt. Advanced

Seven-piece Puzzle – This is a very hard passage to understand, mostly suitable only for very advanced readers of Chinese. The Tangram is a Chinese puzzle. Read on to find out where it came from and it’s purpose. Advanced +

The Spring and Autumn Period – A very difficult piece of Chinese reading about the Spring and Autumn time period in China. A very interesting time which produced a lot of the Chinese culture that we know today. Advanced +

Tomb-Sweeping Day – A passage about Tomb-Sweeping Day. This passage is fairly tricky to understand but has some excellent idioms that are worth learning! Advanced

About people

Interview with David Beckham – Learn some new words and phrases while also learning a little bit about David (大卫) Beckham (贝克汉姆). Intermediate

About Stephen Hawking – A few paragraphs about Stephen Hawking’s early childhood. Nice sentences with a very formal tone. Intermediate +

Who is Einstein? – A fairly long article talking about Einstein’s life and accomplishments. Advanced

George Washington and the cherry tree – The classic story of George Washington and the cherry tree he cut down. Intermediate

About Bill Gates – A short text with lots of useful words. Quite a lot of numbers and ways to describe monetary amounts. Intermediate

Beckham renewed his marriage vows – Another passage about the Beckhams. Some good wedding vocabulary to be found within. Intermediate +

A poet’s descendants – A look at the family of the famous Chinese poet 徐志摩 and who survived him after he died. A nice read although it has a few tricky parts. Intermediate +

Informative articles

This section has been added due to a demand for more technical articles. Let us know what you think as we add more!

The White House – A short passage with some information about the White House. Well-written and although there are a lot of different Chinese characters, the sentences are easily translatable without much struggling. Intermediate +

Football Pitch Regulations – Lots of dimensions, shapes and sizes to be learnt as this article tells us the rules and regulations for constructing football pitches. Advanced

League of Legends Chinese vocabulary – Lots of useful vocabulary for playing LoL in China. From champion names to the different positions/commonly said words. Not useful for Chinese learners just for those who want to play LoL in China

Miscellaneous

Celebrating Spring Festival – An essay written about someones their Spring Festival. The use of adjectives is excellent. Intermediate +

Hidden dangers around the house – A short article informing about safety hazards in typical home. Advanced

Thanks to my teachers – A passage written by a student thanking his teachers on Teacher’s Day. A lot of descriptive language and long sentence structures without being too hard to follow. Intermediate +

What does Mei say in Overwatch? A commonly asked question about everyone’s favorite ice-slinging hero! Not very useful for Chinese learners, just gamers.

A dialogue between a former couple – A very short dialogue highlighting the importance of distinguishing between 他 and 她 in written Chinese. Beginner +

If time could flow backwards – Chinese creative writing about the author’s childhood. Really descriptive and paints a picture of an upbringing in the rural countryside. Advanced

Want to suggest some Chinese reading?

If you would like to suggest a Chinese passage or text for this website to display then please use this contact form. Please let us know who the author is so credit can be given. Alternatively you can comment on any page and let us know. New Chinese reading practice is added to this page often so bookmark this page for fresh Chinese reading material to help you supplement your studies.