I've been learning Traditional characters in Guilin, Guangxi, and I'm right about to complete the Integrated Chinese series after 8 months of study. The Integrated Chinese books are often used up to the 202 level in American universities, so that may serve as a point of reference. I've been going through the books with a tutor for 4 hours a day during the weekends these last eight months. My goal is to be conversationally fluent and be able to understand people easily, if you're wondering why I'm learning traditional characters in mainland china, my main goal is to be eventually be able to read Classical Chinese, and the schools in China are more affordable than in Taiwan. I'm planning on continuing studying in Mainland China for prehaps the next year and a half? I'd like to avoid any language that is only used in written especially formal Chinese and focus on having a foundation in spoken everyday Chinese first since it's easier to immerse myself whilst living in China. I'm wondering if anyone had any recommendations for any books after this level.   Some books I'm considering A Course In Contemporary Chinese: there's a second edition available but I'm a bit confused on what the differences are between it and the first edition, it seems newly released.  Across The Straits: the format of this book seems very useful. I like that its just a transcript of two people (beijing, and taipei) speaking to each other unscripted, and that vocabulary lists are provided. The problem is that the books seems out of print and its difficult to buy books online here. If anyone has recommendations for a book similar to this I would appreciate it. Taiwan Today Beyond the Basics NTLU Materials: A lot of these seem to be similar to the format of Across The Straits but quite advanced in level, I don't know which of them is the most fitting for my level Expressive Chinese The Routledge Advanced Chinese Multimedia Course Crossing Cultural Boundaries Books from the Princeton series, not too sure which ones though, they seem to have been gradually switching away from supporting Traditional Characters as well.   I've also just been considering exhaustively listening to DuChinese? Making sure I know everything out of the advanced readers, and then move on to one of these or a harder book Thank you.

I've decided to finally plow through one of these.  Not in Chinese, that's way too much, but a translation. Just so I understand China better. But which one? Long ago I tried to read 3 kingdoms, but got thrown off the plot by the sheer number of names in Pinyin. They all felt alike in my brain and I  had the brief horrible thought that the novel would be easier to read with English names for all the characters.  Why not Tiger, Rainbow and Tommy? I also got partway through Journey to the West but it read more like a manga than literature.  (hey, there's an idea...)

So, it looks like I might have found a good job in China. We are already living in China, I am currently accompanying my husband on an S2-Visa and will therefore have to change to a Z-Visa.   I had a first talk with HR about the necessary documents today and it seems like they have not had the case of a foreigner changing visa types yet. My actual question revolves around the health check. I had this check done in my home country in order to enter China on the S2 visa, but as this was about 1 year ago I was told I would have to repeat the check.   The company now literally send me the form and the location of the "Shanghai International Travel and Healthcare Centre" today and that I should get a doctor to fill in the form and then have it "chopped" (any ideas on this chinenglish word?!?) at the Centre. We have an agent from my husband's company but she wouldn't say anything and will only do so for extra cash, of course.   So, my question: has anyone ever been through this process within China? Is it difficult and therefore worth getting an agent for this? Everything else for the visa will be organized by the company. Or is it really just... make doctor's appointment and make second appointment then to have the results checked and signed at the Centre. I have no idea if my insurance would cover this health check in the nice international hospital I usually have the privilege to go to. My Chinese is basic to intermediate at best, so I certainly would not be able to handle any medical questions in Chinese. Simple instructions like go there, sign here, pay here...  would probably be ok.   Any suggestions, experience? Thanks for sharing.

Hello, I am organising university exchange. My major is politics and I would like to study in China. I can read, listen and speak Chinese fine (hsk6-7), but cannot write a single character. Will Chinese universities that teach humanities subjects in Chinese have handwritten tasks or exams? If so its not a big deal as I can take english subjects, it's just that i'd rather use my Chinese at a tertiary level. Thanks.

It's very cheap (~3 chapters per yuan), the resolution is very high (except for a few exceptions where it's just good, but still better than scans), and as far as I know the translation is also good.   The app is not in western stores, so download it here: https://manga.bilibili.com/app-download   The app changes quite often, with new offers, deals, bundles, challenges and rewards. It can be a bit overwhelming, so I will explain the main concepts. Let's say you managed to create an account and open a manga chapter, now comes the dreaded moment of payment. Look at this image, I can pay 49漫币 or 1漫读券 for this chapter. The coins 漫币 and blue tickets 漫读券 are the main currency. Currently you can buy 5000漫币 + 50漫读券 for 50 yuan, so basically 150 chapters for 50 yuan. The golden tickets 畅读卡 have the same value as the blue tickets (1 chapter per ticket), but they are suscription based. If I remember correctly the most basic suscription plan gets you 40 tickets/month for 15 yuan/month. Here are the available payment methods:   WHAT MANGA IS AVAILABLE?   You can go to the website and look around: https://manga.bilibili.com/ The shonen selection is very good (all the usual suspects including doraemon, fma, dragon ball, one piece, mob psycho...). The seinen selection is thinner but decent (jojo, vinland saga, golden kamuy, mushishi, gunnm, land of the lustrous...). I don't know about other demographics.   What about Chinese manhua? The only ones I've bought (but haven't read yet) are 镖人 and 乌龙院. I am sure there are other good ones, but it's hard to find them among all the crap for horny teenagers.   DOWNLOADING THE MANGA   There are many reasons why one would want to download the manga rather than reading in the app, I personnally do it because I prefer to read in my ereader. You need to download and install the Hakuneko program in your computer from here: https://github.com/manga-download/hakuneko?tab=readme-ov-file#download This program is used for piracy, but here we will be downloading the manga we purchased, so it's ok?   - Setup Hakuneko (only needs to be done once) Open Hakuneko > click on bookmarks > click on the Bilibili Manhua arrow (see image) > A browser window will open, you simply need to log in inside that window, and then close everything - Download from Hakuneko You can simply search for the manga you want, but here is an easier way: Open your browser, find and copy the link of the manga you want (e.g. Chainsaw Man https://manga.bilibili.com/detail/mc28376) > Open Hakuneko > Click on the clipboard icon in Hakuneko (see image) > Click on the chapters you want to download The first few chapters of every manga are free, so you can download them from Hakuneko to try them out without even installing the Bilibili app.   Manga was the first native content I was able to read, and I still read it because it's very fun, so hopefully this will help others!

I think the first two symbols combined means "lucky", but I would like confirmation, thank you very much and greetings from Spain.  

What is written on a fan? Need translation in English.    

My listening skills are pretty bad, so could someone tell me whether the language the two ladies are speaking here https://youtu.be/NojlI9LhtOY?si=C180Rulnvr9wwWHb&t=288 is Mandarin? I believe the scene is supposed to take place in Taiwan, that's why I suspect Hokkien.   Thanks!

My Astrill experience has been anything but stable these past few months, and as my subscription is finish at the end of week, is there an alternative? On my phone I often have to try half a dozen servers before I get a connection stable enough to open Google/Youtube. And let's not even mention trying to get a connection stable enough to call through Whatsapp. Any suggestions as to Astrill alternatives?

Hello! To all the people living in Shanghai:  We need your help! We will be in Shanghai during May 1st holiday. We are interested in buying dictionaries and HSK materials; can you please indicate what bookshops are worth going? The areas we will visit are: Tianzifang, Xintiandi, Century Park. Last year we went in Fuzhou Road, but bookshops were closed … Thank you!