Lesser Three Gorges Boat Trip032 by Paul B Doherty Traveling to Hubei – Index Why visit Hubei Province? When to visit Hubei? Wuhan – what’s there to see? The city of Jingzhou and Mount Wudang Shennong Jia National Park The city of Yichang Frequently asked questions The capital of Hubei Province (湖北) is Wuhan (武汉). …
Traveling to Hubei, Province of the Three Gorges Dam Read More »
This article is a collection of all the articles on Chinese grammar that we’ve published here on this site. General characteristics of the Chinese language In this article we’ll explain what counts as so-called “Mandarin Chinese”, how many dialects are spoken in modern China, what the Chinese writing is and the word in Chinese; how …
Travel to Hainan – Index How to get to Hainan When to go to Hainan Hainan’s city and population Tourism on Hainan Haikou The volcano complex geopark Mount Wuzhi The mountain of the Seven Spirits Bo’Ao and the BFA Sanya The monkey island of Nanwan The food of Hainan The laoba cha I’ll start off …
Similarities between Chinese and Japanese – Index Main similarities between Chinese and Japanese Main differences between Chinese and Japanese Frequently asked questions Conclusion A frequent question asked of students of Chinese or Japanese is “what’s the difference between Chinese and Japanese?” This question, if asked by someone who hasn’t had the good fortune to learn …
Similarities and Differences Between Chinese and Japanese Read More »
Traveling to Anhui – Index A little history Location and climate The prefecture city of Huang Shan Hongcun and around Tunxi and around Hefei Huang Shan Jiuhuashan A little history The province of Anhui 安徽 – abbreviated as Wǎn 皖 (a character used on car license plates for example) – located in eastern China halfway …
Traveling to Anhui: Province of the Yellow Mountain (Huang Shan) Read More »
Guide to the HSK 6 Test – Advanced Chinese – Index Premise Exam structure Find the error Particular constructions Uncommon words List of frequent chengyu The differences between 口面用语 and 书面用语 Reading The final exercise: the summary Listening Recommended manuals P.S. Click here to test your HSK level with our free quiz! Premise Before taking …
Guide to the HSK 6 Test – Advanced Chinese for Foreign Students Read More »
The Chengyu, in Chinese 成语, are four character expressions that express a particular meaning, taken from the stories of classical China. There are lots of Chengyu in the Chinese language and they get used quite a bit. When a foreigner manages to master the Chengyu – along with idiomatic expressions – both in written and …
List of 148 well-known Chengyu (or idiomatic expressions) Read More »
Are you fed up with the “usual” China? In this article I will present to you one of the most unique provinces in the Middle Kingdom: The Province of Jilin. Jilin 吉林, with its Western-style architecture, its ancient Korean ruins and mix of old and new, is a Chinese Province located in the northeastern part …
Traveling in Jilin, the Province at the Border with North Korea Read More »
Mo Yan Life Mo Yan (莫言), which literally means “nothing to say”, is the pseudonym for Guan Moye (管谟业), an affirmed writer and essayist known worldwide, especially for having won a Nobel prize for literature in 2012 thanks to his ability to merge popular stories, history and modernism with a strong hallucinatory realism. During his …
The Writer Mo Yan: His Life and Most Important Works Read More »
This is the first article of the new category “Readers of SDC: Guide to Chinese literature”, centered around the writer from Hangzhou, Yu Hua. His life Yu Hua (余华) was born April 3, 1960 (one of Yu Hua’s works is entitled “What happened on April 3”, 四月三日事件) in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. At about one year …
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The first step for enrolling in all exams: Create an account on www.chinesetest.cn The first thing you have to do is go to the site www.chinesetest.cn; if you’ve never studied Chinese, look at the highest point on the top right of the page and you’ll see a listing of all available languages (简体中文 | English …
Enrollment Procedures for the Chinese Exams HSK, HSKK, BTC and YCT Read More »
Glowing temple by Carsten Ullrich Ningxia (宁夏), whose capital is Yinchuan (银川), is technically the smallest Chinese province, but also an autonomous region in China on the border with Inner Mongolia with a population exceeding six million three hundred thousand inhabitants. In Yinchuan, there’s an airport with a discreet network of connections, but this shouldn’t …
Traveling to Ningxia, the Smallest Province in China Read More »
In this article, after a brief introduction, you’ll find a table with 150 characters that will help you begin learning Chinese on the right foot. Stephen Krashen, an American language teacher appreciated throughout the world and also in China (Chinese name: 史蒂芬·克拉申), famous mainly for the affective filter theory and for the hypothesis on acquisition …
150 most commonly used characters to begin learning Chinese Read More »
In this article you’ll find grammatical constructions, the most important expressions and the most useful words that will help you pass the HSK exam level 4. The HSK 4 exam’s structure You’ll surely be more comfortable knowing how the exam is laid out. The HSK 4 exam is divided into 3 smaller sections: 45 listening …
In recent years, in many “western” schools teaching Chinese has been initiated and I have been fortunate to be one those who have had the chance to teach it in high schools (in Italy). I confess that I found myself taken aback since I didn’t have even a minimal idea of how to teach this …
Chongqing by Rita Heine I decided to write this article to pay homage to one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited: Chongqing (重庆). My history with this city began in February 2016. Every time I think about the days I spent in Chongqing I get a lump in my throat… and think …
In this article, we’ll see special constructions, peculiar to the Chinese language that will make your expressions in Chinese more elegant. 如 and 不如 如 (rú) “to be equal to, like a” is used more in the formal written form than in the spoken language. The comparison is created when it’s mainly used metaphorically. Here …
Interrogative substitutions谁 (shéi/shuí)，什么 (shénme)，哪 (nǎ) Interrogative substitutions are similar to the “wh – question words” in English, or the interrogative pronouns in Italian. When using interrogative substitutions, the order of the phrase doesn’t change. The interrogative substitutions, precisely, substitute the word that should be found in the answer. When formulating a question through the use …
Interrogative Substitutions and the Structure 以…为 in Chinese Read More »
The complement of company The complement of company indicates the person or inanimate being with which one finds in a specific circumstance or with whom one does or undergoes an action. The complement of company is introduced by the prepositions 跟 (gēn) “with”, 和 (hé) “and/ together with”. Here are a few examples: 我不跟他说了。 Wǒ …
Complements of Company, Means, Tools, Topics, and Directions Read More »
To out emphasis on a small quantity, you can insert one of the following three adverbs: 只(zhǐ), 就 (jiù) and 才(cái), translatable as “only”. Here are a few examples: 今天上课的人很少，就/只/才十一个人。 jīntiān shàngkè de rén hěn shǎo, jiù/zhǐ/cái shíyī gèrén. Today there were few in class, only eleven people. 我才/只/就睡了两个小时。 Wǒ cái/zhǐ/jiù shuìle liǎng gè xiǎoshí. …
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