chinese blogs

17 Awesome Chinese Blogs for Chinese Learners of All Levels

It’s hard to learn Chinese by yourself sometimes, but blogs can make online learning feel a lot more fun and personal.

They tend to share lots of great resources that you can incorporate in your study time, as well as their own lessons on grammar, vocabulary, culture and other vital topics.

I went ahead and put together a list of Chinese blogs that I’ve been appreciating for quite some time now. Hope you enjoy!

Contents

Reference Blogs About Chinese

1. Hacking Chinese

chinese-blogs

There’s no fast track to mastering Mandarin Chinese, but smart resources like Hacking Chinese can certainly help to accelerate your learning. With a focus on how to learn as opposed to what to learn, the blogs present a very student-friendly approach to getting to grips with the language. For example, there are articles on how to learn inside the classroom and out, memory aids to enhance learning and how to have fun learning Chinese. 

The website provides a rich content experience for the beginner, intermediate and advanced language learner.

2. FluentU

Right now, you’re reading the FluentU Chinese blog! If you keep exploring, you’ll find hundreds of blog posts on all aspects of learning Chinese, including a master guide to the Chinese language, reviews of top Chinese apps and breakdowns of essential grammar concepts. All of the posts are written by language learners who have become fluent in Chinese, as well as Chinese teachers.

The blog is a supplement to the FluentU Chinese program, which teaches Chinese through native Chinese videos. With the language program, you can watch clips from authentic Chinese media—movie trailers, TV shows, music videos and more—with learning tools such as interactive subtitles, flashcards and personalized vocabulary quizzes. 

3. Sinosplice

chinese blogs

Sinosplice is a great accompaniment to all your Chinese language learning resources. Run by John Pasden, a Shanghai-based linguist and the founder of AllSet Learning, the website is devoted to helping the student overcome the biggest obstacles they face when learning Mandarin Chinese. 

The posts are full of tips, hints, advice and detailed definitions.  John goes into each topic in some depth and there’s always plenty of material on vocabulary and grammar. Within each category there are further sub-categories, and spending just a few minutes every day with Sinosplice will greatly improve understanding of the country and its culture and language.

4. East Asia Student

chinese blogs

East Asia Student keeps readers on their toes with an ever-changing diet of posts on many aspects of the Chinese language, from vocabulary and how it is structured to learning resources and ways to enhance learning capabilities.  The articles are lengthy and comprehensive, and made palatable by being so well composed.  They are also divided into intuitive smaller subsections. 

This superb blog is the brainchild of a former East Asian Studies degree student (now graduated) as a way to document his progress and at the same time provide something useful for people interested in similar East Asia-related things.

5. Maayot

chinese blogs

Struggling with your Chinese?  Can’t tell shān from shuǐ?  If that sounds like you, don’t worry. Maayot is here to lend a huge helping hand. 

This outstanding blog is packed to the rafters with tips, tricks and resources focused on learning Mandarin Chinese. There are insights into how to make the learning easier, advice on conversational skills and guides for absolute beginners.  There are also posts that analyze the philosophy of the language and how it influences thinking and identity.

There’s plenty of food for thought here.  The blog is written by Dan, a law student from Melbourne who is studying in Nanjing during the first half of 2014.

6. Dig Mandarin

chinese-blogs

Great title for a blog! Billing itself as “Your Guide to the Chinese Learning Jungle,” this comprehensive website packs a lot in.  There’s a plethora of articles related to Mandarin Chinese learning skills including reviews of textbooks and other resources and advice from Chinese language experts.  There are even a few cooking recipes thrown in for good measure. 

The posts are written by a variety of authors and though their styles differ as you would expect, all are united in providing superbly written and informative pieces.  The articles are well laid out with clear prose, photographs and graphics.

Personal Blogs by Chinese Learners

7. iLearn Mandarin

chinese-blogs

One of the most marvelous things about some blogs is they can be so personal, revealing interesting aspects of the writer’s life.  In reading them you can 1) learn something new, 2) marvel at shared experiences and 3) in the comments section get answers to your burning questions as well as helping other members of the community. 

In iLearn Mandarin, Jacob Gill shares his thoughts about learning the language, its challenges and the goals he has set for himself.  Along the way there’s a bunch of other good Chinese-related stuff such as reviews of learning software. Jacob is the CEO of Skritter, the most popular app for learning Chinese characters. 

8. En Route to Fluency

chinese-blogs

This is another wonderful little resource where the blog author writes engagingly about language learning experiences, including the occasional tips and tricks that can help the reader achieve fluency.  There are also some thorough reviews of learning resources such as books, personal stories and a reasonable smattering of Chinese with translations.

En Route to Fluency is a good read for every level of Chinese language student.  A small handful of posts is published nearly every month.

9. Sara Jaaksola

chinese blogs

The next best thing to actually being in China and learning about the country, its cultures, language and people is to have a guide who takes you to the places you can’t actually get to for the time being.  

Sara Jaaksola is a marvelous blog that’s run by a Finnish teacher who’s the head of a Chinese language center and who studied in China for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Through informative, fascinating and occasionally entertaining posts she uses her own experiences to take the reader on a learning journey.  She has an engaging writing style and is obviously extremely knowledgeable about the subjects she is writing about. 

There are blog posts on living in China, traveling in China, studying Chinese and must-read books for China expats.

10. Linda Living in China

chinese blogs

Linda is big on China with a passion for the country that has no limits.  She’d spent eight months living there while studying Mandarin.  She hopes to return someday, but in the meantime is turning her love and enthusiasm for all things Chinese into a fantastic blog.  There’s lots about her experiences as well tips for working and traveling in the country and comments on China-related news and cultural traditions. 

For anyone wanting to know more about China and the language, this blog should be on your list of must-reads.  The posts are nicely structured, well written and make good use of photographs.

Blogs about Chinese Culture   

11. Sapore Di Cina

chinese blogs

Big, bold and beautiful photographs, crisp prose and great information are a winning combination in this marvelous series of blog posts.  Sapore Di Cina, which means “Flavor of China” in the blog author’s mother tongue of Italian, is a well-stacked store of informative articles about learning Chinese and traveling and working in China

Here you will find posts about tourist locations, learning resources, study tips, vocabulary, visas, health benefits of green tea, finding a job in China and a whole lot more.  It’s dynamic, exciting and thoroughly absorbing.

12. Daily View

chinese blogs

Daily View is a pop culture site that has a good variety of everything you might seek in a blog: celebrity news, current events, lifestyle tips, dating advice, updates on TV dramas and more.

It’s a one-stop blog for Chinese articles on almost every popular and trending topic. You’ll learn Chinese lifestyle and pop culture terms, as well as names of the latest shows and movies. There are even fun sections that show the most viral restaurants and celebrities, and you can switch between news focused on Taiwan or Hong Kong.   

Blogs for Reading in Chinese

13. China Dialogue

blogs-in-chinese

China Dialogue is a bilingual news blog with an emphasis on environmental issues. It actually has every article in both English and Chinese, which makes it an excellent study tool.

It features very thought-provoking, relevant articles that are useful for discussions, class presentations and re-posting on social media. For example, some interesting posts are, “Can traditional Chinese medicine end cruelty to China’s bears?” and “Dying for an iPhone: the lives of Chinese workers.”

It also tackles world news, with the relationship between China and EU after the COVID pandemic. Consider this blog a must-read for socially conscious Chinese learners.

14. Business Weekly Taiwan

chinese blogs

Business Weekly Taiwan is the Chinese blog belonging to the magazine Business Weekly. It has a section that analyzes business strategies, which is great for learners of workplace Chinese. There’s even a reading club column, which shares excerpts of books published by Business Weekly at least twice a week. 

It features finance, tech and education news as well, which will help you be in the know when it comes to Asian economics and society. You can use this blog to learn business, tech and finance vocabulary.

15. Happy Cloud Travel Blog

blogs-in-chinese

Happy Cloud is a personal travel blog with a journal of travel experiences in Europe and Asia. It has great photographs of food and travel destinations. 

You can use this blog to learn vocabulary for country and city names, which are very important to know for real-life conversation, but are often overlooked by students. It’s actually handy to check out if you’re traveling since there are a lot of great recommendations, featuring places from all over the world. On top of posts about Taiwan, there are more than 500 posts about Japan alone and more than 100 posts about Europe. 

16. Alpha Sports Training 

Alpha Sports Training is a fitness and bodybuilding blog. It features around fifty articles on diet and exercise and takes inspiration from real-life athletes and martial arts superstars like Bruce Lee.

Many of the blog posts go into detail about the science behind bodybuilding, and they even reference studies sometimes. It also delves into the training regimes for different types of activities, such as MMA (mixed martial arts) and badminton. You can learn a lot of Chinese health and physiology terms here!

17. Fashion Guide

chinese blogs

Fashion Guide is a girly blog about shopping, fashion and make-up tips. It also has a “top 100 fashion blogs list,” so you can use it as a resource to find even more personal blogs by fashionistas.

This blog can teach you retail, clothing and beauty-related Chinese terms. You’ll encounter Chinese names of international designer fashion, cosmetics and fragrance brands since it features plenty of reviews. Although it’s mainly a beauty blog, it also features restaurant and food recommendations.

Tips for Improving Your Chinese Through Blogs

  • Choose blogs that you like. You’ll be much more motivated to read blogs if they speak to your interests. So there’s no need to force yourself to read Chinese business news when what you really love is poetry or pop culture, for example. 
  • Record vocabulary, phrases and sentence structures learned. You won’t retain much of what you learn if you don’t write it down somewhere and regularly review. So jot down any new phrases or colloquialisms for future review and application. If you read one post a week, for example, schedule a weekly review as well, 3-4 days after you first read the post.
  • Use the help of online translation sites and apps. When you see a new Chinese word, you can make use of online tools to understand it better. Try MDBG.net, which gives traditional and simplified characters, Mandarin pinyin, Cantonese pinyin, audio pronunciation and English definitions. Here are some more great translation apps.
  • Pay attention to learning strategies. Blogs by Chinese learners often bring up different techniques that they used firsthand to reach fluency, including flashcards, immersion and listening drills. You can make your studying more efficient by experimenting with these and seeing what works for you. 
  • Set some goals. Specific goals will keep you on track and committed to learning. For example, aim to write down five new vocabulary words or phrases from every blog post you read. Or, aim to read two blog posts per week and review your new words once a week.

For Advanced Learners: How to Find Blogs in Chinese

If you’re an advanced learner who wants to read more blogs in Chinese, you can find more of them on Google by using the search term “部落格” (bù lùo gé), meaning “blog.” You can also pair it with search terms related to your topic of interest, such as 时装 (shí zhuāng — fashion), or 美食 (měi shí — food).

Here’s a quick list of search terms to use:

  • Blog — 部落格 (bù lùo gé)
  • Fashion — 时装 (shí zhuāng)
  • Food — 美食 (měi shí)
  • Tech — 新技术 (xīn jì shù)
  • News — 新闻 (xīn wén)
  • China mainland — 国内 (gúo nèi)
  • Taiwan — 台湾 (tái wān)
  • Hong Kong — 香港 (xiāng gǎng)
  • Bilingual Chinese-English — 中英雙語 (zhōng yīng shuāng yǔ)

 

With this list and guide as your starter, we hope you’ll have fun dipping your toes into Chinese blogs. Who knows, you might end up diving in head first and uncover plenty of other gems to devour!

And One More Thing...

If you want to continue learning Chinese with interactive and authentic Chinese content, then you'll love FluentU.

FluentU naturally eases you into learning Chinese language. Native Chinese content comes within reach, and you'll learn Chinese as it's spoken in real life.

FluentU has a wide range of contemporary videos—like dramas, TV shows, commercials and music videos.

FluentU brings these native Chinese videos within reach via interactive captions. You can tap on any word to instantly look it up. All words have carefully written definitions and examples that will help you understand how a word is used. Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list.

FluentU's Learn Mode turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you're learning.

The best part is that FluentU always keeps track of your vocabulary. It customizes quizzes to focus on areas that need attention and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a 100% personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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