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The Beijing Duck
Chinese Blog
Practical language guides, travel tips, HSK strategies and cultural insights everything you need to get further in Mandarin.
Practical language guides, travel tips, HSK strategies and cultural insights everything you need to get further in Mandarin.
Here's how payments work the apps, the QR codes, and all the Chinese you'll need at every checkout counter.
Food floors, kids' floors, gyms, cinemas and arcades all under one roof. What a typical mall looks like, and the Mandarin that goes with it.
One time zone for a whole country, prices in units of 10,000, names in reverse order. The small details that make China click.
From a morning market in Dalian to a high-tech supermarket in Shanghai. Read handwritten price signs, understand 斤 and 元, and pay by scanning a QR code.
Touring a Chinese factory or walking a trade show? A few well-placed sentences open doors. Here's what to say, when to say it, and how to keep the connection alive.
What Mandarin's four tones are, how to learn them, the tone change rules nobody tells you, and the mistakes most beginners make.
The Mandarin you need at the table, from getting seated to asking for the bill. Plus the menu characters that stop you ordering something unexpected.
The first official HSK 3.0 exam is on 13 December 2026. What actually changes, which materials still apply, and how to keep your preparation on track.
WeChat, Baidu, DiDi, Meituan the apps that run daily life in China, and the Chinese vocabulary that comes with them.
QR codes, WeChat mini programs, bubble tea options and xiaolongbao menus. The Chinese characters that actually help you order.
In Shanghai you don't visit a car dealer. You browse EVs between lunch and bubble tea. Huawei sells cars. Xiaomi did what Apple couldn't.
Face recognition at the gate, 60 humanoid robots on the floor, and a coffee robot on its break. Our visit to Shanghai's biggest tech event.
Red lanterns, plastic stools, fresh seafood on the grill, and a QR code to order with your phone. A Travel Chinese lesson.
20.99km of coastline, a Guinness World Record, sea sculptures on a cliff face and all the Chinese you need on the trail.
Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Dalian every major city has a name worth understanding.
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