{"id":5881,"date":"2026-03-23T07:30:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T06:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=5881"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:31:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:31:27","slug":"the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 best free Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-16302 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/best-chinese-listening-resources-1024x279.png\" alt=\"The 10 best free Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/best-chinese-listening-resources-1024x279.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/best-chinese-listening-resources-300x82.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/best-chinese-listening-resources-768x209.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/best-chinese-listening-resources-1536x418.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/best-chinese-listening-resources-2048x557.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Listening is the most important skill of all, because it accelerates learning and is crucial for social integration. What are the best free Chinese listening resources out there for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners?<\/p>\n<p>In this article, I share the best free Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced students. I have spent years collecting resources, and these are the best free ones I&#8217;ve found!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/archive-2\/listening\/\">Listening<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/archive-2\/reading\/\">reading<\/a> are essential. Without enough input, you&#8217;re not going to perform well in other areas of the language either. Lots of listening and reading will help you develop a feel for how the language is used. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/is-speaking-more-important-than-listening-when-learning-chinese\/\">Speaking is the tip of the iceberg, visible over the surface; listening is the bulk volume under the surface that makes it float.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Tune in to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/podcast\/\">the Hacking Chinese Podcast<\/a> to listen to the related episode (#210 or #294):<\/em><br \/>\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/5dXYJpIoAKKixuopkcD34o?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border-radius:12px;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n<em>Available on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/hacking-chinese-podcast\/id1536284827\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5iCRv1jg3j3yJZGJlYVYaO\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/2Z0sH5X5Dgo\">YouTube<\/a> and many other platforms!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Skip to the Chinese listening resource nidex<\/a> (but I strongly recommend that new students read on).<br \/>\n<a name=\"you-dont-listen-to-enough-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"you-dont-listen-to-enough-chinese\">You don&#8217;t listen to enough Chinese<\/h3>\n<p>Students don&#8217;t listen anywhere near as much as they should. It&#8217;s not enough to listen to your teacher, the audio in your textbook and a podcast here and there. Your total time spent listening should be equal to or greater than all other types of learning combined.<\/p>\n<p>This is not because listening is more important, but because it&#8217;s easier to do than other types of practice. You can listen while walking, commuting, cooking and exercising. If you struggle to find enough time to practise listening, try the advice I offer here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/make-sure-that-listening-is-not-a-practical-problem\/\">7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"eF64kfor1w\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/make-sure-that-listening-is-not-a-practical-problem\/\">7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/make-sure-that-listening-is-not-a-practical-problem\/embed\/#?secret=oQ6LwrLWUw#?secret=eF64kfor1w\" data-secret=\"eF64kfor1w\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\">Free Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners<\/h3>\n<p>Below you can find an overview of the best free Chinese listening resources. They have been separated into four levels:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Zero beginner (A0)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Beginner (A1-A2)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Intermediate (B1-B2)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Advanced (C1-C2)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Please note that creators use different labels for their content, so someone&#8217;s &#8220;intermediate&#8221; can be someone else&#8217;s &#8220;advanced&#8221;. The general pattern across all resources is this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Listening resources on the lower levels are harder than advertised.\u00a0<\/strong> You&#8217;ll find content labelled as &#8220;absolute beginner&#8221; even though it&#8217;s not beginner-friendly at all. This is probably because this group of students is very big, but it&#8217;s hard to create good beginner content.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Listening resources on the higher levels are easier than advertised. <\/strong>Or, in other words, actually not &#8220;advanced&#8221; according to most international frameworks. This is because Chinese is hard to learn, and creators want to encourage students to feel that they have reached a higher level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that most creators offer a range of levels, so even if I recommend a podcast or channel for beginners, you can still find more advanced content there. Therefore, be mindful of what playlist or section you go to, and try a few videos, episodes or lessons before you say it&#8217;s too hard or too easy.<br \/>\n<a name=\"the-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\">The best <em>free <\/em>Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners<\/h3>\n<p>Some of the resources listed here have premium content. However, the evaluations I&#8217;ve done in this article are based solely on freely available content. Creating good listening content, especially for beginners, is not easy, so many of the best resources will inevitably cost money.<\/p>\n<p>If you have some money to invest in your learning, explore the free options below and pay for those you find helpful. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinese-learning-tools-and-resources-worth-paying-for\/\">I&#8217;ve written more about resources worth paying for here<\/a>, but not everyone can afford to pay for their learning, so the rest of this article will focus on free content!<\/p>\n<p>I regularly update this article with better listening resources when I find them (see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#new\">What&#8217;s new?<\/a> section). If you know a great resource I haven&#8217;t mentioned, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-listening-resource-collections-for-learning-chinese\/#comments\">please leave a comment below<\/a>!<br \/>\n<a name=\"index\"><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#you-dont-listen-to-enough-chinese\">You don&#8217;t listen to enough Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#what-to-listen-to-how-to-do-it-and-how-much-you-should-listen\">What to listen to, how to do it and how much you should listen<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#watching-or-listening-to-learn-mandarin\">Watching or listening to learn Mandarin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#a-few-practical-tips-for-improving-listening-ability-in-chinese\">A few practical tips for improving listening ability in Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#the-fluent-listener-navigating-mandarin-like-a-fish-in-water\">The Fluent Listener: Navigating Mandarin Like a Fish in Water<\/a><\/li>\n<li><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-zero-beginner\">Zero beginner (A0)<\/a><\/b>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#lazy-chinese-comprehensible-input\">Lazy Chinese &#8211; Comprehensible Input<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#mandarin-click\">Mandarin Click<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#diane-neubauer-chinese-learning-teaching\">Diane Neubauer \u675c\u96c1\u5b50 Chinese learning &amp; teaching<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#slow-clear-chinese\">Slow &amp; Clear Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#blabla-chinese-comprehensible-input\">Blabla Chinese \u2013 Comprehensible Input<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#shianguu-hsieh-chinese-story-listening\">Shianguu Hsieh (Chinese Story Listening)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#jun-stickynote-chinese\">Jun &#8211; Stickynote Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#melnyks-chinese\">Melnyks Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#hacking-chinese-tone-training-course\">Hacking Chinese Tone Training Course<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#free-mandarin-sound-and-tone-references\">Free Mandarin sound and tone references<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-beginner\">Beginner (A1-A2)<\/a><\/b>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#slow-clear-chinese-2\">Slow &amp; Clear Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#mandarin-click-3\">Mandarin Click<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#lazy-chinese-comprehensible-input-2\">Lazy Chinese &#8211; Comprehensible Input<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#learning-chinese-through-stories-novice-and-beginner\">Learning Chinese through Stories (novice and beginner)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#alison\">Alison Mandarin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#annie\">Story learning Chinese with Annie<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#acquire\">Acquire Mandarin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#cherry\">Chinese Mandarin Cherry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#du-chinese\">Du Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#free-mandarin-sound-and-tone-references-2\">Free Mandarin sound and tone references<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-intermediate\">Intermediate (B1-B2)<\/a><\/b>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#learning-chinese-through-stories\">Learning Chinese through Stories (\u542c\u6545\u4e8b\u8bf4\u4e2d\u6587)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#teatime-chinese\">TeaTime Chinese (\u8336\u6b47\u4e2d\u6587)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#maomi-chinese\">Maomi Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#speak-chinese-with-da-peng\">Speak Chinese with Da Peng<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#chinesepod\">ChinesePod<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#dashu-mandarin\">Dashu Mandarin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#convo-chinese\">Convo Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#learn-taiwanese-mandarin\">Learn Taiwanese Mandarin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#tv-and-movies\">TV and movies<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#music-and-songs\">Music and songs<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-advanced\">Advanced (C1-C2)<\/a><\/b>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#good-old-radio-analogue-and-digital\">Good old radio (analogue and digital)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#tv-and-movies-2\">TV and movies<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#free-chinese-listening-via-video-sharing-platforms\">Free Chinese listening via video-sharing platforms<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#science-in-chinese-with\">Science in Chinese with \u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#section\">\u9535\u9535\u4e09\u4eba\u884c\/\u5706\u684c\u6d3e<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#audiobooks\">Audiobooks<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#podcasts-for-native-speakers\">Podcasts for native speakers<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#live-streaming-of-games-and-sports\">Live streaming of games and sports<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#lectures-and-academic-content-in-chinese\">Lectures and academic content in Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#news-and-current-affairs-in-chinese\">News and current affairs in Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#whats-new\">What&#8217;s new?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#500-chinese-learning-resources-sorted-and-tagged-by-level-topic-and-type\">500+ Chinese learning resources sorted and tagged by level, topic and type<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#what-are-your-favourite-free-mandarin-listening-resources\">What are your favourite free Mandarin listening resources?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;re after reading resources, check this article has a twin: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/10-best-free-chinese-reading-resources-beginner-intermediate-advanced\/\">The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"yohkz85pv1\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/10-best-free-chinese-reading-resources-beginner-intermediate-advanced\/\">The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/10-best-free-chinese-reading-resources-beginner-intermediate-advanced\/embed\/#?secret=3zknrRdcaD#?secret=yohkz85pv1\" data-secret=\"yohkz85pv1\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"what-to-listen-to-how-to-do-it-and-how-much-you-should-listen\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"what-to-listen-to-how-to-do-it-and-how-much-you-should-listen\">What to listen to, how to do it and how much you should listen<\/h3>\n<p>In general, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/three-factors-decide-much-chinese-learn\/\">three factors determine how much you learn: content, method and time<\/a>, or otherwise <strong>what<\/strong> you do, <strong>how<\/strong> you do it and <strong>how much<\/strong> of it you do.<\/p>\n<p>This can be applied to listening practice as well:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/can-too-much-guidance-make-you-learn-less-chinese\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-11417\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/pexels-photo-1605943-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>What should you listen to?\u00a0<\/strong>You should listen to Chinese at roughly your level, and that contains the kind of language you want to learn. This sounds obvious, but it can be very difficult in practice, especially for beginners.\u00a0 For example, podcasts in English (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/podcast\/\">including my podcast<\/a>) don&#8217;t count as listening practice, nor does English spoken in learner podcasts. For this article, <strong>I discarded a vast majority of podcasts I found because they contain too much English!<\/strong> If in a ten-minute episode for beginners, there&#8217;s a twenty-second dialogue played a few times, and then some vocabulary or grammar, but the rest is in English. If you listen to this for an hour, you&#8217;ve only spent ten minutes practising your listening! I wrote more about this problem here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/can-too-much-guidance-make-you-learn-less-chinese\/\">Can too much guidance make you learn less Chinese?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-chinese-comprehensible-input\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-20398 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/CI-word-cloud-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/CI-word-cloud-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/CI-word-cloud-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/CI-word-cloud-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/CI-word-cloud.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>How should you listen?\u00a0<\/strong>The goal should be both quantity and quality (not necessarily at the same time), but since the next point is entirely about quantity, let&#8217;s talk about quality first. You learn Chinese when you connect form (spoken or written words in context) to meaning and function. If you don&#8217;t understand what you&#8217;re listening to, you won&#8217;t learn much, but the more you understand, the more likely you are to pick up the few things you didn&#8217;t already know. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-chinese-comprehensible-input\/\">You want comprehensible input<\/a>. Furthermore, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-become-fluent-in-chinese\/\">fluency development<\/a> is important, so even listening to relatively easy Chinese is beneficial. The answer to the question of how you should listen is that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/adjust-your-listening-practice-to-your-current-state-of-mind\/\">you should vary your approach depending on circumstances<\/a>. Do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/listening-strategies-active-listening\/\">active listening<\/a> when you can, but otherwise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/listening-strategies-passive-listening\/\">passive listening<\/a> is good too, and when you can&#8217;t do that either, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/listening-strategies-background-listening\/\">it&#8217;s still often possible to have something on in the background<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-forking-path-a-human-approach-to-learning-chinese\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-11571 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/forking-english-chinese-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>How much should you listen?\u00a0<\/strong>As much as possible! I&#8217;ve already said this, but I think a reasonable goal is to listen as much as you do to everything else related to Chinese combined. This includes all types of listening, including listening to Chinese music while working and the like. I&#8217;ve already linked to my article about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/make-sure-that-listening-is-not-a-practical-problem\/\">7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice<\/a>, but if you struggle to integrate large amounts of listening into your life, you might benefit from shaking up how you think about time management a bit. This is beyond the scope of this article, so I will just provide a few links I think are extra important: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-forking-path-a-human-approach-to-learning-chinese\/\">The forking path: A human approach to learning Chinese<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-time-barrel-you-have-more-time-than-you-think\/\">The time barrel: How to find more time to study Chinese<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-find-more-time-to-practise-listening\/\">How to find more time to practise Chinese listening<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve written dozens of articles about various aspects of improving listening ability in Chinese, some of which I have provided links to above. For more about listening ability in general, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-chinese-comprehensible-input\/\">please check out the main page for listening here on Hacking Chinese<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"watching-or-listening-to-learn-mandarin\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"watching-or-listening-to-learn-mandarin\">Watching or listening to learn Mandarin<\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"118\" data-end=\"617\">Listening is often easier when supported by visuals. In a video, the setting provides context, and people use body language, point at things, and interact with their surroundings. This gives you another path to understanding. If you are only listening, you might miss the word \u72d7 (g\u01d2u), \u201cdog\u201d, but if a dog appears on screen at the same time, that visual cue might be enough for you to make the connection. Building these sound-meaning connections is at the heart of improving your listening ability.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"619\" data-end=\"962\">This means that watching videos can often be more helpful than listening to audio alone. There are practical limits, however. Watching a video is not a good option when you are running in the forest or driving, but pure audio works well in situations like these. Most people can also fit in much more listening than watching, and that matters.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"964\" data-end=\"1171\">Below, I recommend a variety of resources, some with visual support and some that are audio only. Try both. For more video-based resources, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-youtube-channels-for-learning-chinese\/\">The best YouTube channels for learning Chinese.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"RH6JUzosaY\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-youtube-channels-for-learning-chinese\/\">The best YouTube channels for learning Chinese in 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The best YouTube channels for learning Chinese in 2026&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-youtube-channels-for-learning-chinese\/embed\/#?secret=q8odk3SsMc#?secret=RH6JUzosaY\" data-secret=\"RH6JUzosaY\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a name=\"a-few-practical-tips-for-improving-listening-ability-in-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"a-few-practical-tips-for-improving-listening-ability-in-chinese\">A few practical tips for improving listening ability in Chinese<\/h3>\n<p>Here are a few practical tips for how to get the most out of the resources I have recommended below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/listen-before-you-read-improve-your-listening-ability\/\">Listen before you read<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/listen-before-you-read-improve-your-listening-ability\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7878 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/play-151523_960_720-150x150.png\" alt=\"Listen before you read\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/play-151523_960_720-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/play-151523_960_720-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/play-151523_960_720.png 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a> &#8211;<\/strong> If there are transcripts, turn them off and listen first. Listen more than once, and only look at the written version once you&#8217;ve exhausted your listening ability. When you have exhausted your reading ability, look at the transcript if you must, but you&#8217;d be better off switching to a resource you don&#8217;t need to use the transcript to understand.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/make-sure-that-listening-is-not-a-practical-problem\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-16847\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/woman-listening-square-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/woman-listening-square-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/woman-listening-square-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/woman-listening-square-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/woman-listening-square-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/woman-listening-square-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/woman-listening-square-2048x2048.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/make-sure-that-listening-is-not-a-practical-problem\/\">Make the audio easy to access<\/a> &#8211;<\/strong> Many of the resources recommended below have audio that is embedded in a way that makes it hard to access easily. If there is a podcast, use a dedicated podcast app to listen, as this is both practical and easy. If there are videos, extract the audio and put it on your phone for listening (search online for how to save MP3 from YouTube, while staying clear of illegal behaviour, of course). More advice for smooth and effortless listening can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/make-sure-that-listening-is-not-a-practical-problem\/\">in the article linked above<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/listen-more-and-learn-more-by-building-a-personal-chinese-audio-library\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-17650\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/audio-library-cover-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/audio-library-cover-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/audio-library-cover-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/audio-library-cover-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/audio-library-cover.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/listen-more-and-learn-more-by-building-a-personal-chinese-audio-library\/\">Build your own audio library<\/a> &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong>Save everything you listen to and like. After doing this for a while, you&#8217;ll have plenty of old audio to listen to when you don&#8217;t feel up to listening to something new. Reviewing old audio is almost as valuable as tackling new content. By making sure this is easy to do, you can maximise your listening.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"the-fluent-listener-navigating-mandarin-like-a-fish-in-water\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-fluent-listener-navigating-mandarin-like-a-fish-in-water\">The Fluent Listener: Navigating Mandarin Like a Fish in Water<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/courses\/the-fluent-listener-navigating-mandarin-like-a-fish-in-water\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-19793 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Fluent-Listener-Single-Box-Mockup-Square-1000-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Fluent-Listener-Single-Box-Mockup-Square-1000-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Fluent-Listener-Single-Box-Mockup-Square-1000-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Fluent-Listener-Single-Box-Mockup-Square-1000-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Fluent-Listener-Single-Box-Mockup-Square-1000.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Looking to understand Mandarin in a natural way, no matter your level? My course <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/courses\/the-fluent-listener-navigating-mandarin-like-a-fish-in-water\/\">The Fluent Listener<\/a> helps you create an immersive listening environment while providing you with key strategies to enhance your listening skills.<\/p>\n<p>Strengthen your ability to understand and engage in conversations, build connections with others, and dive deep into Chinese society and culture, making you feel \u5982\u9c7c\u5f97\u6c34 (r\u00fay\u00fad\u00e9shu\u01d0), like a fish in water!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/courses\/the-fluent-listener-navigating-mandarin-like-a-fish-in-water\/\">The Fluent Listener: Navigating Mandarin Like a Fish in Water<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><a name=\"beg\"><\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-zero-beginner\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-zero-beginner\">The 10 best free Chinese listening resources: Zero beginner<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/archive-2\/beginner\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-16171\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/beginner-chinese-swimming-child-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Creating content in Chinese for students with no experience in the language is challenging, but there are brave and skilled teachers who do so. Note that some of these resources ramp up difficulty rather quickly, so don\u2019t hesitate to switch to another resource and start over there!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/archive-2\/beginner\/\">Click here for advice about how to learn Chinese as a beginner<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For more about beginner listening specifically, also check: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/beginner-chinese-listening-practice-what-to-listen-to-and-how\/\">Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"5ceHsQLqDx\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/beginner-chinese-listening-practice-what-to-listen-to-and-how\/\">Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/beginner-chinese-listening-practice-what-to-listen-to-and-how\/embed\/#?secret=kKO7i1sv7v#?secret=5ceHsQLqDx\" data-secret=\"5ceHsQLqDx\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a name=\"lazy-chinese-comprehensible-input\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"lazy-chinese-comprehensible-input\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Lazy-Chinese\">Lazy Chinese &#8211; Comprehensible Input<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Lazy-Chinese\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-20174 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lazychinese-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lazychinese-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lazychinese.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>This channel is one of the best beginner-friendly, Chinese-only channels I&#8217;ve found. She gives you plenty of listening practice without spending five minutes speaking English for every minute of Chinese. There is often no English spoken at all. The podcast version can be found by searching for \u201cComprehensible Chinese\u201d, but if you\u2019re a complete beginner, you definitely want to stick to video.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s): <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_CMzfhsCYrA&amp;list=PLjgH7-dte9OI70iliLciPVVYaNc3tJZKu\">Beginner Chinese stories with comprehensible input + TPRS<\/a><strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_CMzfhsCYrA&amp;list=PLjgH7-dte9OI70iliLciPVVYaNc3tJZKu\">L01| Comprehensible input Chinese | TPRS | Self-introduction in Chinese | my mum and my boyfriend<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"mandarin-click\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"mandarin-click\">Mandarin Click<\/h4>\n<p><a name=\"mandarin-click-2\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"mandarin-click-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MandarinClick\">Mandarin Click<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MandarinClick\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-20175\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Mandarin Click is one of the best channels on YouTube for beginners. They offer many videos completely in Chinese, spoken in a slow and clear manner, with supporting images and body language. If you really want it, they also have translations into English. Feel free to explore the channel, but in my opinion, the playlists called Slow Chinese Stories are the best.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s):<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLyR35boSO5qfUwk3K0mLAQQ7RX243_5GW\">HSK1 Comprehensible Input Stories<\/a><strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video:<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/rbLlUXT72C4?feature=shared\">HSK1 | \u6211\u7684\u5bb6 My Home | Comprehensible Input Stories HSK1 Practice Bundle 1\/4 | Beginner Chinese<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"diane-neubauer-chinese-learning-teaching\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"diane-neubauer-chinese-learning-teaching\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@DianeNeubauer\">Diane Neubauer \u675c\u96c1\u5b50 Chinese learning &amp; teaching<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@DianeNeubauer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-20176\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/diane-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/diane-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/diane-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/diane-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/diane.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Diane is a Chinese teacher focusing on comprehension-based learning and teaching. Her YouTube channel contains content for both students and teachers. Zero beginners should check out the two playlists that I recommend below. Teachers might want to check out her podcast here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com\/\">Conversations about Language Teaching<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s): <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLCaX8Z4AkGZrbO0PFku40RAVqnUaBivyT\">Mandarin Chinese talks &amp; visits with my chickens<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLCaX8Z4AkGZriWRXX-tVi52CF6RS3qV45&amp;feature=shared\">Learning to read Chinese: very beginning reading<\/a><strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/MamAFRPHWGU\">Visiting the hens: very beginning Mandarin Chinese 1<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"slow-clear-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"slow-clear-chinese\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@immersivechinese\">Slow &amp; Clear Chinese<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@immersivechinese\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-20177 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slowclear-150x150.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slowclear-150x150.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slowclear-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slowclear.webp 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Slow and Clear Chinese offers beginner-friendly listening practice without using any English. They can do this even for absolute beginners by using gestures, images, body language and props in their videos. This is one of the very few resources I\u2019ve found that you can use right from day one without relying heavily on English translations and explanations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s): <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLGAohsc-9JhUEBWj6ykwiyyI4biQQSy6D\">Immersive Chinese Series<\/a><strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/BDtIRY8RCMg?feature=shared\">Learn Chinese &#8211; Immersive Series Lesson 1 (Absolute Beginner)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"blabla-chinese-comprehensible-input\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"blabla-chinese-comprehensible-input\">Blabla Chinese \u2013 Comprehensible Input<\/h4>\n<p><a name=\"blabla-chinese-comprehensible-input-2\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"blabla-chinese-comprehensible-input-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@blablachinese7526\">Blabla Chinese &#8211; Comprehensible Input<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@blablachinese7526\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-20178 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/blabla-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/blabla-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/blabla-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/blabla-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/blabla.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>This is another great YouTube channel focusing on comprehensible input. The videos are well-produced with clear and slow speech, although not so slow that it becomes unnatural. There&#8217;s also a lot of visual support, including props she uses while recording or images presented on screen. There are other playlists that work better when you&#8217;re not entirely new to Chinese, but still a beginner.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s): <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/playlist?list=PL-8uKDbZv3P1-NZC6d8mFkzi7HPHGpBdr&amp;feature=shared\">100 Chinese Stories Series [SUPPER BEGINNER]<\/a> (although there aren&#8217;t 100 stories)<strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/8DOqzqezeCo?feature=shared\">Ep01_Story1 Surprised Dating | 100 Chinese Stories Series | Comprehensible Input | SUPER BEGINNER<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"shianguu-hsieh-chinese-story-listening\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"shianguu-hsieh-chinese-story-listening\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@shianguuhsieh2107\/\">Shianguu Hsieh (Chinese Story Listening)<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@shianguuhsieh2107\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-20179\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/hsieh-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/hsieh-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/hsieh-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/hsieh-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/hsieh.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>This channel has a few things going for it. First, it&#8217;s the only channel I&#8217;ve found with beginner-friendly comprehensible input spoken by a male speaker. Second, he makes great use of simple drawings to help you understand. Third, the content is reasonable engaging.<\/p>\n<p>The only drawback is that the channel is inactive and only has 13 videos. I&#8217;ve chosen to recommend it here because there are so few resources for zero beginners that stay almost entirely in Chinese.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s): <\/strong>All videos (there is no playlist)<strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/2VCiOyt_5u0?si=IPDTzxCEqsDa6n0T\">Chinese Story for Beginners #1<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"jun-stickynote-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"jun-stickynote-chinese\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Stickynote.Chinese\">Jun &#8211; Stickynote Chinese<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Stickynote.Chinese\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-20180 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/junsticky-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/junsticky-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/junsticky-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/junsticky-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/junsticky.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>A comprehensible input channel with few but good videos. While the recommended playlist is suitable for zero beginners, I would suggest starting with one of the other A0 resources if this is literally your first engagement with Mandarin. You don\u2019t need any vocabulary or prior knowledge to benefit from this playlist, but it doesn\u2019t start with things like pronouns and basic verbs, so you might want to get those first. This works great as your second or third A0 playlist.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s):<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLE_szUry_z75dEDLYxjVpcPIOf_qu6BIk\">Beginner &#8211; Comprehensible Input Mandarin<\/a><strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/2YZ5Ez9wu6w?feature=shared\">Easy Mandarin for ABSOLUTE Beginners (HSK0\/1) &#8211; Mandarin Immersion<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"melnyks-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"melnyks-chinese\"><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/119843495\">Melnyks Chinese<\/a><\/h4>\n<p data-wp-editing=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/119843495\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-18360 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melnykschinese-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melnykschinese-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melnykschinese-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melnykschinese.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>This website and podcast offer theme-based, progressive online audio lessons. There are transcripts, worksheets, mobile apps, videos and more. Not all of this content is free, but the beginning of the course is, and it&#8217;s also available on most podcast platforms, where it&#8217;s called &#8220;Learn Mandarin Chinese &#8211; Chinese Audio Lessons&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While this audio course does contain English, it does work in an audio-only format for complete beginners. The host repeats words and phrases over and over, and also includes other voices in the lessons so you can hear Mandarin pronounced by different people (the host is a foreigner, but his pronunciation is very good). If you&#8217;re not a complete beginner, you should look for immersive listening resources instead, but this can serve as a good and somewhat safe starting point.<\/p>\n<p>My overall verdict: This resource is easy to understand in an audio-only format and offers progressive lessons with plenty of built-in repetition, but it also uses too much English.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"hacking-chinese-tone-training-course\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"hacking-chinese-tone-training-course\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-tone-training-course-is-now-open\/\">Hacking Chinese Tone Training Course<\/a><\/h4>\n<p data-start=\"906\" data-end=\"1164\">This free course, which I built with Kevin Bullaughey as part of a research project, helps you learn to hear the basic tones in Mandarin. It focuses on single tones and presents them in a systematic way, which is something most learners rarely get access to.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1166\" data-end=\"1372\">The course contains listening exercises only, but this kind of training also improves pronunciation. It takes a few hours to complete, spread across shorter sessions, and works on both computers and phones.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1374\" data-end=\"1448\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">I think the first version sounds a little more natural and reader-focused.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"4vPYGhv0AO\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-tone-training-course-is-now-open\/\">The Hacking Chinese free tone training course<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The Hacking Chinese free tone training course&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-tone-training-course-is-now-open\/embed\/#?secret=8niaEraohr#?secret=4vPYGhv0AO\" data-secret=\"4vPYGhv0AO\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"free-mandarin-sound-and-tone-references\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"free-mandarin-sound-and-tone-references\">Free Mandarin sound and tone references<\/h4>\n<p>This entry is not a resource in itself, but rather a collection of resources related to Mandarin sounds and tones that I have collected over the years. While you can\u2019t use most of these for extensive listening on your commute, it\u2019s still important to be able to find sound references and learn more about the sounds and tones of Mandarin. If you want to learn more about tones specifically, please check <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-hacking-chinese-guide-to-mandarin-tones\/\">The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"KunV6UF2BY\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-hacking-chinese-guide-to-mandarin-tones\/\">The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-hacking-chinese-guide-to-mandarin-tones\/embed\/#?secret=9VvQPphL4q#?secret=KunV6UF2BY\" data-secret=\"KunV6UF2BY\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here are my top picks:<b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/resources.allsetlearning.com\/chinese\/pronunciation\/pinyin_chart\"><b>AllSet Learning Pinyin Chart with audio<\/b><\/a><b> &#8211; <\/b>If you want to check what a certain syllable with a certain tone sounds like, this should be your go-to reference guide. You can also find many other useful things on the Chinese Pronunciation Wiki.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/free-and-easy-audio-flashcards-for-chinese-dictation-practice-with-anki\/\"><b>Free and easy audio flashcards for Chinese dictation practice with Anki<\/b><\/a><b> &#8211; <\/b>If you want to drill listening, but don\u2019t have access to high-quality premium audio or a real teacher or native speaker, you can create fairly good audio flashcards in Anki completely for free.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Text-to-speech (speech synthesis) &#8211; <\/b>While synthesised speech is remarkably good these days, it\u2019s not good enough to rely on for pronunciation practice and mimicking. However, it\u2019s good enough for extra listening practice when you really want to listen to a text and don\u2019t have anyone around who is willing to read it for you. Search for plugins for your browser, operating system or stand-alone software for this.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b><a href=\"https:\/\/forvo.com\/languages\/zh\/\">Forvo<\/a> &#8211; <\/b>This is a crowd-sourced pronunciation dictionary that covers a very large number of words and phrases in many languages. It\u2019s useful for looking up the pronunciation of words when you want to get a feel for how different people speak Chinese. Please note that many of the recordings here are decidedly not standard, which is the reason I list them here. You can, for example, check out 42 different pronunciations of \u4f60\u597d, including information about where the speaker is from.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/youglish-a-free-service-to-hear-and-see-chinese-words-in-context\/\"><strong data-start=\"439\" data-end=\"451\">YouGlish<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; This free service lets you hear Chinese words and phrases in authentic YouTube clips. It\u2019s great for checking pronunciation in context, comparing different speakers, and seeing how words are actually used. Because each clip starts at the relevant timestamp, you can move quickly through many examples to get a good idea of how something is typically pronounced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"help-do-you-know-of-any-great-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-zero-beginners\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"help-do-you-know-of-any-great-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-zero-beginners\">Help! Do you know of any great free Chinese listening resources for zero beginners?<\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-16147\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/question-mark-1872665_1280-300x165.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/question-mark-1872665_1280-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/question-mark-1872665_1280-1024x563.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/question-mark-1872665_1280-768x422.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/question-mark-1872665_1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>When writing this article, I spent a dozen hours looking for additional beginner podcasts and audio lessons that are both free and contain mostly Chinese, but there simply aren&#8217;t that many.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure there are excellent beginner resources out there that I have missed, so if you know of one, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-listening-resource-collections-for-learning-chinese\/#comments\">please leave a comment below<\/a>! Please also include why you recommend it.<\/p>\n<p>It has to meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Free, or have a large free component that is worthwhile on its own<\/li>\n<li>Mostly in Chinese, so most learner podcasts are disqualified<\/li>\n<li>For beginners (although not necessarily total beginners)<\/li>\n<li>Enough content to be worthwhile (I&#8217;ve found many channels that have one or two good videos, but that&#8217;s not enough)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Thank you!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-beginner\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-beginner\">The 10 best free Chinese listening resources: Beginner<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-10137\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trainingwheels-300x260.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trainingwheels-300x260.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trainingwheels-768x665.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trainingwheels-1024x887.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trainingwheels.jpeg 1272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>As a beginner, you are mostly limited to Chinese spoken specifically with language learners in mind. Anything else will flood you with new vocabulary and will make it impossible to understand without a ton of dedicated studying.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that creating this kind of content is not easy, and there aren&#8217;t that many good resources available. Many podcasts, for example, are much harder than advertised, so even if you find some episodes from the recommended resources that are for &#8220;absolute beginners&#8221;, they are sometimes quite hard.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/archive-2\/beginner\/\">Click here for advice about how to learn Chinese as a beginner<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For more about beginner listening specifically, also check: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/beginner-chinese-listening-practice-what-to-listen-to-and-how\/\">Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"5ceHsQLqDx\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/beginner-chinese-listening-practice-what-to-listen-to-and-how\/\">Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/beginner-chinese-listening-practice-what-to-listen-to-and-how\/embed\/#?secret=kKO7i1sv7v#?secret=5ceHsQLqDx\" data-secret=\"5ceHsQLqDx\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a name=\"slow-clear-chinese-2\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"slow-clear-chinese-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCdwdSGQsSbcapDmODtOr58g\">Slow &amp; Clear Chinese<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-16339 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/slow-and-clear-chinese-youtube-300x169.png\" alt=\"Free Chinese listening practice with Slow and Clear Chinese on YouTube.\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/slow-and-clear-chinese-youtube-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/slow-and-clear-chinese-youtube-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/slow-and-clear-chinese-youtube-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/slow-and-clear-chinese-youtube.png 1469w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/b>Slow and Clear Chinese offers beginner-friendly listening practice without using any English. They can do this even for absolute beginners by using gestures, images, body language and props in their videos. This is one of the very few resources I\u2019ve found that you can use right from day one without relying heavily on English translations and explanations (also check Bumpy Chinese and Mandarin Click). Excellent!<\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Only Chinese, well-produced content, clear audio<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>Only on YouTube (and the channel is no longer updated)<\/p>\n<p><b>Sample video:<\/b>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/jJJRixS1fOk\">Life of a University Student<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/mandarinbean.com\/category\/beginner\/\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"mandarin-click-3\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"mandarin-click-3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MandarinClick\">Mandarin Click<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MandarinClick\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-20175\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mandarinclick.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Mandarin Click is one of the best channels on YouTube for beginners. They offer many videos completely in Chinese, spoken in a slow and clear manner, with supporting images and body language. Feel free to explore the channel, but in my opinion, the playlists called Slow Chinese Stories are the best.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s):\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MandarinClick\/playlists\">Anything labelled HSK 1-4<\/a><strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/iamQclBCfoY?feature=shared\">\u6211\u611f\u5192\u4e86 | Slow Chinese Stories Beginner | Chinese Listening Practice HSK 2\/3<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"lazy-chinese-comprehensible-input-2\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"lazy-chinese-comprehensible-input-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Lazy-Chinese\">Lazy Chinese &#8211; Comprehensible Input<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@comprehensiblechinese\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-20174\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lazychinese-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lazychinese-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lazychinese.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>This channel is one of the best beginner-friendly, Chinese-only channels I&#8217;ve found. She gives you plenty of listening practice without spending five minutes speaking English for every minute of Chinese. There is often no English spoken at all. The podcast version can be found by searching for \u201cComprehensible Chinese\u201d. Note that while some of the playlists are labelled &#8220;intermediate&#8221;, I think they still belong in the A1-A2 range, especially considering the pedagogical approach, which makes them very accessible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s):<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OJrUyg_Iqwt2RMjbQ6Kl0yS&amp;feature=shared\">Low Intermediate Stories with Comprehensible Input+TPRS<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OInt-JsxktINewA749sujcO&amp;feature=shared\">Intermediate Chinese stories with comprehensible input and TPRS<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OKV4sneMBZSPl0AfTY-HFrp&amp;feature=shared\">High Intermediate Chinese Stories with Comprehensible Input+TPRS<\/a><strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/K5kuz1fNMa8?feature=shared\">Intermediate | When trying out new and weird food | \u201cBrainwash\u201d your mouth\ud83e\udd14\uff5cComprehensible Chinese<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"learning-chinese-through-stories-novice-and-beginner\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"learning-chinese-through-stories-novice-and-beginner\"><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/942258146\">Learning Chinese through Stories<\/a> (novice and beginner)<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/942258146\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-18462 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/LCTS-Image-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/LCTS-Image-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/LCTS-Image-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/LCTS-Image.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>This podcast is mostly free and offers episodes entirely in Chinese. The hosts do a good job of making sure you understand without relying on translation. Some episodes come in pairs, where one episode consists of a story and the other episode contains an explanation and discussion of that story in Chinese. Both types of episodes are worthwhile, but note that the story is often harder than the episode discussing it. Episodes are usually long, which is great!<\/p>\n<p>Beginners should focus on episodes labelled 1.X.X first, but these can be rather hard to find. <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/6Rzls6cdlxjgPSbcZRvred\">If you&#8217;re on Spotify, you can use this playlist.<\/a> Note that some parts of episodes are harder than others and that, as a beginner, you shouldn&#8217;t listen to understand everything; focus on what you <em>do\u00a0<\/em>understand, not what you\u00a0<em>don&#8217;t\u00a0<\/em>understand!<\/p>\n<p>Also note that while episodes are behind a paywall on their website, they are still available on most podcast platforms. This won&#8217;t give you transcripts and easy browsing, but you can access most of their content for free this way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros:<\/strong>\u00a0Good at keeping things in Chinese, dual structure of episodes, generally quite interesting<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cons:<\/strong> Sometimes too hard, difficult to navigate episodes<\/p>\n<p><strong>Official description: <\/strong>\u542c\u6545\u4e8b\u8bf4\u4e2d\u6587LCTS creates authentic and immersive podcasts. It covers a wide range of topics and proficiency levels(Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced). Every story has two parts: story (A) and story explanation (B), accompanied by annotated vocabulary and transcript.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"alison\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@alisonmandarin1729\">Alison Mandarin<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@alisonmandarin1729\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-20181\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/alison-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/alison-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/alison-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/alison-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/alison.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>This channel focuses on teaching Chinese through natural conversations, storytelling, and practical language tips. Alison speaks Mandarin at a learner-friendly pace, making it accessible for language learners at different levels. Videos are typically split into two, with one at normal pace without subtitles and one spoken at a slower pace with characters and Pinyin, along with some images.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s):<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Zx8cE4oeyKU&amp;list=PLnLOmX0PYAeQcZuJpfMgx6TVfTSpukXN8\">Slow Chinese stories for beginner<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@alisonmandarin1729\">Slow Chinese stories for upper beginner<\/a><strong><br \/>\nSuggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Zx8cE4oeyKU?feature=shared\">[ENG SUB] HSK1-2 Slow Chinese stories\uff5clistening practice \uff1a\u5c0f\u660e\u4e00\u5bb6<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"annie\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@annieluo1307\/featured\">Story learning Chinese with Annie<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@annieluo1307\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-20193\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/annie-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/annie-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/annie-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/annie-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/annie.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>This YouTube channel contains lots of content mostly or entirely in Chinese, for beginner and intermediate learners. Some of the playlists are not clearly labelled, but check the recommended playlists to see what you think and then browse around for more.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike many other channels, this one has videos with varying formats, including games, talking about pictures, and much more (not just vlogs or someone having a conversation).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s):<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLqNEwlNzCkYGFB6UF7YnlXCasQbppCzG1\">\u6c49\u8bed\u6545\u4e8b chinese stories for beginning and intermedium level<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J3NxpO4t_aQ&amp;list=PLqNEwlNzCkYFZur2McsKPAg-2laSUgD-B\">Comprehensible input for beginners<\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Suggested first video:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/J3NxpO4t_aQ?si=dH39UX0kxg0kQYpv\">Easy Chinese listening exercise for HSK1 ,HSK2 AND HSK3 NO.1<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"acquire\"><\/a>a<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@acquiremandarin\">Acquire Mandarin<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@acquiremandarin\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-20194\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/acquire-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/acquire-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/acquire.jpeg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>This channel has quality content on all levels, but it&#8217;s particularly good for beginners and lower intermediate learners. Poona is great at presenting interesting content while staying in Chinese, relying on pictures, body language and explanations (still in Chinese) to get the point across. The difficulty level is not the same in all levels within the same playlist, so do check more than one video if you find the content too hard.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s): <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLsuKLLw2SWup0e891PVZtJMWUxNAo7qEo&amp;feature=shared\">Comprehensible Chinese\u2014\u2014Beginners\u521d\u7ea7<\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Suggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/PrnZKYd9rxk?feature=shared\">How to Cross the River?\u600e\u4e48\u8fc7\u6cb3\uff1f | Comprehensible Chinese for Beginners<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"cherry\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@chinesemandarincherry\">Chinese Mandarin Cherry<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@chinesemandarincherry\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-20195\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cherry-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cherry-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cherry-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cherry-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cherry.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Chinese Mandarin Cherry provides various types of video content labelled as &#8220;intermediate&#8221;, although I think the difficulty level is closer to A2 in most cases. There is less support, which makes it a bit harder, but if you feel that the rest of the beginner content provided here is on the easy side, this might be a good bridge to the intermediate level below. Most of the content is entirely in Chinese. Some need to be watched, but most work in audio-only mode too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggested playlist(s):<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLkyDGzSUgr_K2eJPA2B_xNTSgwvTnTnQf\">Listening Practice<\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Suggested first video: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZVo6oDgnYwY?feature=shared\">Why You Can&#8217;t Understand Chinese Conversation, Drama and News by Listening? | \u4e2d\u56fd\u4eba\u804a\u5929\uff0c\u7535\u89c6\u5267\uff0c\u65b0\u95fb\u4e3a\u4ec0\u4e48\u4f60\u90fd\u542c\u4e0d\u61c2\uff1f<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"du-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"du-chinese\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.duchinese.net\/\"><b>Du Chinese<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.duchinese.net\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-14447 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/duchinese-1-300x96.png\" alt=\"DuChinese is an app that offers on-screen reading with accompanying spoken Mandarin.\" width=\"300\" height=\"96\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/duchinese-1-300x96.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/duchinese-1-1024x327.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/duchinese-1-768x245.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/duchinese-1.png 1395w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/b>This is a well-designed app for iOS, Android and the web, providing lots of easy-to-read texts with audio on various levels. New content in the app is free, so if you check regularly, you can keep listening, but you need a subscription to access the archive of over a thousand articles. The app features a pop-up dictionary and many other features.<\/p>\n<p>The app is very well-designed, but not built primarily for listening. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duchinese.net\/lessons\">You can check out many of the free lessons online on their website<\/a>, which also clearly labels what is premium and what isn&#8217;t. Even if most content isn\u2019t free, the free parts in Du Chinese still make it a good listening resource.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to access the paid content, the code HACKINGCHINESE will give you 10% off!<\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Well-designed app, lots of content, text\/audio syncing<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>Not primarily designed for listening, free content cycles (so no binge listening)<\/p>\n<p><b>Sample clip (elementary):<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duchinese.net\/lessons\/courses\/22-the-nose?chapter=1\">The Nose<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/chinesereadingpractice.com\/category\/beginner\/\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"free-mandarin-sound-and-tone-references-2\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"free-mandarin-sound-and-tone-references-2\">Free Mandarin sound and tone references<\/h4>\n<p>This entry is not a resource in itself, but rather a collection of resources related to Mandarin sounds and tones that I have collected over the years. While you can\u2019t use most of these for extensive listening on your commute, it\u2019s still important to be able to find sound references and learn more about the sounds and tones of Mandarin. If you want to learn more about tones specifically, please check <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-hacking-chinese-guide-to-mandarin-tones\/\">The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"KunV6UF2BY\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-hacking-chinese-guide-to-mandarin-tones\/\">The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-hacking-chinese-guide-to-mandarin-tones\/embed\/#?secret=9VvQPphL4q#?secret=KunV6UF2BY\" data-secret=\"KunV6UF2BY\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here are my top picks:<b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/resources.allsetlearning.com\/chinese\/pronunciation\/pinyin_chart\"><b>AllSet Learning Pinyin Chart with audio<\/b><\/a><b> &#8211; <\/b>If you want to check what a certain syllable with a certain tone sounds like, this should be your go-to reference guide. You can also find many other useful things on the Chinese Pronunciation Wiki.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-tone-training-course-is-now-open\/\"><b>The Hacking Chinese tone training course<\/b><\/a><b> &#8211; <\/b>This is a free tool I built with Kevin Bullaughey for a research project. It will present single tones to you in a systematic and carefully planned manner that is meant to help your brain sort out the differences between the tones. It only works for single tones, so this is for those of you who struggle with the basics.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/free-and-easy-audio-flashcards-for-chinese-dictation-practice-with-anki\/\"><b>Free and easy audio flashcards for Chinese dictation practice with Anki<\/b><\/a><b> &#8211; <\/b>If you want to drill listening, but don\u2019t have access to high-quality premium audio or a real teacher or native speaker, you can create fairly good audio flashcards in Anki completely for free.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Text-to-speech (speech synthesis) &#8211; <\/b>While synthesised speech is remarkably good these days, it\u2019s not good enough to rely on for pronunciation practice and mimicking. However, it\u2019s good enough for extra listening practice when you really want to listen to a text and don\u2019t have anyone around who is willing to read it for you. Search for plugins for your browser, operating system or stand-alone software for this.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b><a href=\"https:\/\/forvo.com\/languages\/zh\/\">Forvo<\/a> &#8211; <\/b>This is a crowd-sourced pronunciation dictionary that covers a very large number of words and phrases in many languages. It\u2019s useful for looking up the pronunciation of words when you want to get a feel for how different people speak Chinese. Please note that many of the recordings here are decidedly not standard, which is the reason I list them here. You can, for example, check out 42 different pronunciations of \u4f60\u597d, including information about where the speaker is from.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/youglish-a-free-service-to-hear-and-see-chinese-words-in-context\/\"><strong data-start=\"439\" data-end=\"451\">YouGlish<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; This free service lets you hear Chinese words and phrases in authentic YouTube clips. It\u2019s great for checking pronunciation in context, comparing different speakers, and seeing how words are actually used. Because each clip starts at the relevant timestamp, you can move quickly through many examples to get a good idea of how something is typically pronounced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-intermediate\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-intermediate\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/archive-2\/intermediate\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7953\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/intermediate-1.png\" alt=\"How to improve your Chinese listening ability as an intermediate learner.\" width=\"150\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/intermediate-1.png 320w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/intermediate-1-160x300.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>The 10 best free Chinese listening resources: Intermediate<\/h3>\n<p>When you reach the intermediate level, finding good listening material becomes easier. There are fewer students on this level, but it&#8217;s also easier to create content when you can assume that the listener understands basic words and phrases. A skilled teacher can speak Chinese using mostly words and grammar that their students know, which is the best kind of listening practice.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, &#8220;intermediate&#8221; covers a broad range of learners, from those who have just graduated from the beginner level to those who are almost ready for authentic content produced for native speakers. This means that the resources I recommend here often contain a mix of levels, so don&#8217;t discard a resource because you checked one example and found it too hard or too easy. Instead, look around and see if they offer slightly harder or easier listening depending on what you want.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d also like to mention that I have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-podcasts-for-learning-chinese\/\">a separate post specifically about podcasts for learning Chinese where you can find more recommendations<\/a>, especially at the intermediate level:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"dpoonYnRM1\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-podcasts-for-learning-chinese\/\">The best podcasts for learning Chinese in 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The best podcasts for learning Chinese in 2025&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-podcasts-for-learning-chinese\/embed\/#?secret=NJ62gR1cKi#?secret=dpoonYnRM1\" data-secret=\"dpoonYnRM1\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As before, the labels used vary a lot. It&#8217;s very common to call intermediate content &#8220;advanced&#8221; to encourage students, so don&#8217;t be scared by something the creator has slapped an &#8220;advanced&#8221; label on, as it might be just the right resource for you as an intermediate learner!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/archive-2\/intermediate\/\">Click here for advice about how to learn Chinese as an intermediate learner<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"learning-chinese-through-stories\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"learning-chinese-through-stories\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#lcts\">Learning Chinese through Stories (\u542c\u6545\u4e8b\u8bf4\u4e2d\u6587)<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/learningchinesethroughstories.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-16355 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/lcts-300x177.png\" alt=\"Learning Chinese through Stories (\u542c\u6545\u4e8b\u8bf4\u4e2d\u6587) is my favourite learner podcast.\" width=\"300\" height=\"177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/lcts-300x177.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/lcts-1024x604.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/lcts-768x453.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/lcts-1536x906.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/lcts.png 1901w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong>Learning Chinese through Stories is probably the best podcast around for learners in the intermediate range, from low intermediate up to high intermediate. The structure is straightforward: They present a story of some kind and then, in a parallel but separate episode, they discuss that story, all in Chinese. While the stories are not spectacular, the fact that they discuss words and grammar almost entirely in Chinese in a comprehensible manner is great. They are also quite good at doing this without throwing in unnecessarily difficult words.<\/p>\n<p>Please note that while almost everything on their website is premium content, you can still access all the podcast episodes for free through the podcast platform of your choice! Of course, if you like the show, you can consider signing up, but this article is meant to focus on free content, and if you want that, listen to the podcast.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros:\u00a0<\/strong>Good at keeping things in Chinese, dual structure of episodes, generally quite interesting<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:\u00a0<\/strong>Hard to access on their website (find the podcast instead)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sample lesson: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/learningchinesethroughstories.com\/2-1-35%e3%80%8a%e6%b4%bb%e9%b8%9f%e8%bf%98%e6%98%af%e6%ad%bb%e9%b8%9f%e3%80%8b\/\">2.1.35\u300a\u6d3b\u9e1f\u8fd8\u662f\u6b7b\u9e1f\u300b<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"teatime-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"teatime-chinese\"><a href=\"https:\/\/teatimechinese.com\/podcasts\/\">TeaTime Chinese (\u8336\u6b47\u4e2d\u6587)<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/teatimechinese.com\/podcasts\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-16359 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ttct-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"TeaTime Chinese is a great podcast for intermediate listening practice.\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ttct-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ttct-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ttct-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ttct-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ttct.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong>TeaTime Chinese is an excellent resource for intermediate learners. The host, Nathan, speaks slowly and clearly about recent and\/or interesting topics. He speaks almost exclusively Chinese and only adds occasional words in English if it&#8217;s something learners can&#8217;t be expected to know, but is crucial for understanding. He also explains words and grammar in Chinese.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that this is one of the few learner podcasts with a male host, which is great for listening variety and for mimicking purposes for those with deeper voices than the average Chinese teacher.<\/p>\n<p>The best way to access the podcast is through the podcast provider of your choice or on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/TeaTimeChinese\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros:\u00a0<\/strong>Interesting topics, teaching new things in Chinese, male host<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:\u00a0<\/strong>None, really<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sample episode:<\/strong> \u7b2c49\u96c6\uff1a\u4e2d\u56fd\u7684\u201c\u56db\u5927\u53d1\u660e\u201d The &#8220;Four Great Inventions&#8221; of China (<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/6mJNegfDGmNaG1mWJtZJed?si=_b2JNMwRTS6zJvqHw7PJwQ&amp;nd=1\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/jp\/podcast\/teatime-chinese-%E8%8C%B6%E6%AD%87%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87\/id1557463835\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"maomi-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"maomi-chinese\"><a href=\"https:\/\/maomichinese.com\/podcast\/\">Maomi Chinese<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/maomichinese.com\/podcast\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-16360 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/maomi-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Tune in to Maomi Chinese for free intermediate Mandarin listening practice.\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/maomi-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/maomi-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/maomi-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/maomi-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/maomi.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong>This is another great podcast for intermediate learners which is almost exclusively in Chinese. There are some occasional words or phrases in English, but you can count on training your listening muscles every minute of this podcast! I think one of the best things with this podcast is that the topics are rather interesting. Browse through the catalogue of episodes and see if you find anything interesting.<\/p>\n<p>As usual, this podcast is best accessed through the podcast platform of your choice, but their website is also good and provides transcripts and easy access to the audio itself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros:\u00a0<\/strong>Easy to access, some support for free, interesting topics<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:\u00a0<\/strong>None, really<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sample episode:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/maomichinese.com\/podcast87\/\">#87 What is Chinese horror like? \u4ec0\u4e48\u662f\u4e2d\u5f0f\u6050\u6016\uff1f<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"speak-chinese-with-da-peng\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"speak-chinese-with-da-peng\"><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/1490732024\">Speak Chinese with Da Peng<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/plinkhq.com\/i\/1490732024\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-18371 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dapeng-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dapeng-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dapeng-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dapeng-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dapeng.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/b>This is one of my favourite podcasts for intermediate learners. The host, Da Peng, is good at speaking clearly without making it sound too exaggerated, and he puts a lot of effort into each episode. If you&#8217;re tired of scripted dialogues, this is for you! There are several different types of episodes, including those featuring daily Chinese expressions, interviews with advanced learners and more spontaneous monologues. These vary in difficulty, so check a few different types before you decide if this is for you or not.<\/p>\n<p>As with many other podcasts focusing on vocabulary and phrases, it&#8217;s okay to not focus too much on the content being taught, and instead focus more on the explanations. These are simpler and more comprehensible for most students. If you come away from an episode about a certain phrase without feeling that you know that phrase, but you did understand most of what he said in the episode, that&#8217;s completely fine!<\/p>\n<p>You could also check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-podcasts-for-learning-chinese\/#ttc\">TeaTime Chinese<\/a>, which is fairly similar but considerably easier.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros:\u00a0<\/strong>Only in Chinese, engaging, varied content<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:\u00a0<\/strong>Difficulty varies quite a bit between episodes<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"chinesepod\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"chinesepod\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinesepod\/\">ChinesePod<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinesepod\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-16362 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/chinesepod-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Chinese Pod features the biggest library of podcast episodes for learners of Mandarin on all levels.\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/chinesepod-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/chinesepod-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/chinesepod-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/chinesepod.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong>ChinesePod has been around for so long that I had access to it when I started learning Chinese more than fifteen years ago. There&#8217;s a vast archive of content, most of which is freely available through the podcast platform of your choice. No need to sign up, log in or jump through hoops.<\/p>\n<p>The reason I only mention it here on the intermediate level is that I don&#8217;t think the beginner content is very good compared to the content I have recommended already. However, the episodes labelled upper intermediate and advanced are great for intermediate learners!<\/p>\n<p>For the more advanced podcasts, just ignore the dialogues they have created and focus on the language surrounding the dialogue instead. The hosts speak only or almost only Chinese, which is what you&#8217;re after. I&#8217;ve listened to hundreds of hours of ChinesePod and the catalogue has expanded dramatically since 2007. Most is accessible as a podcast on the major platforms for podcasts. You can check my full review of ChinesePod here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinesepod-review\/\">ChinesePod review: Your companion to Mandarin fluency<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros:\u00a0<\/strong>Enormous library, natural style between hosts, easy to access via podcast<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:\u00a0<\/strong>Intermediate episodes still contain too much English<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sample episode:<\/strong> \u5728\u4e2d\u56fd\u4e0a\u5927\u5b66 (<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/1yyzd2qJF4BOiAfMnFOzdx\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/kz\/podcast\/advanced-%E5%9C%A8%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E4%B8%8A%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A6\/id1529838325?i=1000570785130\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"dashu-mandarin\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"dashu-mandarin\"><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/1614411825\">Dashu Mandarin<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/1614411825\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-18379 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dashu-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dashu-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dashu-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dashu-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dashu.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/b>This is a great podcast if you want to listen to authentic conversations about a variety of topics. The official description is helpful: &#8220;We&#8217;re three Chinese teachers that focus on providing authentic and valuable Chinese learning materials for the Chinese learners of intermediate level and above. In this Podcast, we will talk about all kinds of things concerning China and Chinese culture, society, etc.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I find the diversity of people on the podcast refreshing and engaging, both in the sense that there are three male teachers in the same podcast (unheard of!) and in the sense that they bring in different guests, including advanced second-language learners. The conversations are unscripted and more chaotic than in most podcasts recommended above, and there is very little in terms of support if you fail to understand something. They often talk over each other, too, and sometimes switch topics rapidly. Thus, this can be hard to follow, but is perfect practice for real-world conversations with more than one person!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros:\u00a0<\/strong>Natural conversations in small groups, engaging and varied content, long episode (30-40 minutes)<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:\u00a0<\/strong>Occasionally chaotic (which can be pro, too)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"convo-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"convo-chinese\"><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/1565956246\">Convo Chinese<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/1565956246\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-18374 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/convochinese-300x300.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/convochinese-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/convochinese-150x150.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/convochinese.webp 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/b>Convo Chinese is tailored for intermediate and advanced learners and dives into genuine Chinese dialogues spanning a wide range of topics from daily life to global politics. As the name implies, these are conversations between the host and one or two guests, often other native speakers, but sometimes also advanced learners. Episodes differ in how much they paraphrase and explain difficult words and expressions, so if you find an episode too hard, try another!\u00a0Transcripts and vocabulary lists are available on their website or in the show notes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros: <\/strong>Almost only in Chinese, natural conversations, interesting topics<br \/>\n<strong>Cons:\u00a0<\/strong>Somewhat uneven difficulty level depending on the guest(s)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"learn-taiwanese-mandarin\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"learn-taiwanese-mandarin\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lear-taiwanese-mandarin.webnode.tw\/%e9%9f%b3%e9%a0%bb\/\">Learn Taiwanese Mandarin<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/lear-taiwanese-mandarin.webnode.tw\/%e9%9f%b3%e9%a0%bb\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-16363 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/learntaiwanesemandarin-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Chinese learner podcast with a focus on Taiwanese Mandarin.\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/learntaiwanesemandarin-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/learntaiwanesemandarin-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/learntaiwanesemandarin.jpeg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/b>This is a relaxed podcast where the host, Jiayu, talks about Taiwan and life there. She also occasionally brings in guests. The podcast is entirely in Chinese, spoken in a fairly standard Taiwanese Mandarin accent. Please note that if you&#8217;re after intermediate listening, skip the first three episodes as they use a completely different style and are for beginners.<\/p>\n<p>The website features an episode gallery which makes it easy to navigate, and for each episode, you have transcripts with a pop-up dictionary, all for free! I also like the podcast because it&#8217;s very practical in many cases. Check the sample episode below, for example, which is not only good for teaching you the language, but also has some great tips if you&#8217;re looking for an apartment in Taiwan. I&#8217;ve lived in five different apartments across Taiwan, and I would have benefited immensely from this episode back then!<\/p>\n<p>You can access the podcast both on the website and through the podcast provider of your choice.<\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Clearly spoken, extra support available, easy to access<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>None, really<\/p>\n<p><b>Sample episode:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/lear-taiwanese-mandarin.webnode.tw\/l\/50-%e5%9c%a8%e5%8f%b0%e7%81%a3%e7%a7%9f%e6%88%bf%e5%ad%90\/\">\u5728\u53f0\u7063\u79df\u623f\u5b50<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"tv-and-movies\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"tv-and-movies\">TV and movies<\/h4>\n<p>As an intermediate learner, you are in a great position to learn Chinese through TV and movies. Sure, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/improving-your-chinese-while-watching-tv-shows\/\">there are some specific shows that work for beginners as well<\/a>, but generally speaking, watching something where you understand almost nothing has almost no benefit.<\/p>\n<p>As an intermediate learner, you have the basics of vocabulary and grammar down to make sense of TV and movies. Naturally, you still need to choose your shows, but there&#8217;s plenty of great content to choose from. If you want suggestions for what to watch, including an indication of how difficult it might be, I strongly suggest you check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jiong3.com\/gradedwatching\/\">Graded Watching<\/a>, which has more than a hundred TV shows analysed by difficulty.<\/p>\n<p>There are also many articles about TV series and movies here on Hacking Chinese:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/improving-your-chinese-while-watching-tv-shows\/\">Improving your Chinese while watching TV shows<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/a-learners-guide-to-tv-shows-in-chinese-part-1\/\">A learner\u2019s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 1<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/a-learners-guide-to-tv-shows-in-chinese-part-2\/\">A learner\u2019s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 2<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"md6bxzZCvx\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/improving-your-chinese-while-watching-tv-shows\/\">Improving your Chinese while watching TV shows<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Improving your Chinese while watching TV shows&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/improving-your-chinese-while-watching-tv-shows\/embed\/#?secret=ej8h96vWgL#?secret=md6bxzZCvx\" data-secret=\"md6bxzZCvx\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"music-and-songs\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"music-and-songs\">Music and songs<\/h4>\n<p>Just like TV and movies, music can be used to learn Chinese at a beginner level too, but again, the songs you can choose from if you want it for listening practice are rather limited. From a listening perspective, songs in Mandarin also have the downside that tones are often completely ignored, which is okay once you have a good grasp of them, but not very good when you&#8217;re struggling to learn them in the very beginning.<\/p>\n<p>Music has great potential for background and passive listening, though, because the more songs you listen to and learn in Mandarin, the larger your personal playlist becomes. Put these songs on in the background when you do other things and you will soon find that you know the lyrics by heart!<\/p>\n<p>While it&#8217;s hard to quantify the impact of lyrics on my English, I probably know the lyrics of several hundred songs in English, without even having tried to learn them. I haven&#8217;t learnt that many in Chinese, but I can still identify many words and expressions I know that came from a specific song I have learnt. I&#8217;ve written more about learning Chinese through music here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"post-list-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-learning-chinese-through-music-is-underrated\/\">Why learning Chinese through music is underrated<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"post-list-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/12-songs-to-learn-chinese-and-expand-your-horizons\/\">12 songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"post-list-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/13-more-songs-to-learn-chinese-and-expand-your-horizons\/\">13 more songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"post-list-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/14-extra-songs-to-learn-chinese-and-expand-your-horizons\/\">14 extra songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"EbTgBpvbCS\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-learning-chinese-through-music-is-underrated\/\">Why learning Chinese through music is underrated<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Why learning Chinese through music is underrated&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-learning-chinese-through-music-is-underrated\/embed\/#?secret=UddiHWB8JS#?secret=EbTgBpvbCS\" data-secret=\"EbTgBpvbCS\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-advanced\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-advanced\">The 10 best free Chinese listening resources: Advanced<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/archive-2\/advanced\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7955\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/advanced-1.png\" alt=\"Improving Chinese listening ability at an advanced level.\" width=\"150\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/advanced-1.png 320w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/advanced-1-160x300.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Now that you&#8217;ve passed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-get-past-the-intermediate-chinese-learning-plateau\/\">the dreaded intermediate plateau of learning Chinese<\/a>, you should switch mainly to audio produced for natives by natives. This means that your options are virtually unlimited and it is very easy to find free materials. Naturally, you will need to provide your own scaffolding, as none of these resources come with transcripts, vocabulary lists and so on.<\/p>\n<p>As was the case for the intermediate resources, difficulty can vary hugely between resources or even between texts within the same resource. Thus, don&#8217;t give up just because one article turns out to be difficult!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/archive-2\/advanced\/\">Click here for advice about how to learn Chinese as an advanced learner<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"free-chinese-listening-via-video-sharing-platforms\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"free-chinese-listening-via-video-sharing-platforms\">Free Chinese listening via video-sharing platforms<\/h4>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-16397 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/xiguashipin-300x132.png\" alt=\"Practice your Chinese listening ability for free on Xigua Video (\u897f\u74dc\u89c6\u9891).\" width=\"300\" height=\"132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/xiguashipin-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/xiguashipin-1024x451.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/xiguashipin-768x338.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/xiguashipin-1536x676.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/xiguashipin.png 2013w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/b>Most high-quality listening content produced today is embedded in videos of some kind. Sure, there are podcasts, audiobooks and other audio-only formats, but video is the medium of the century.<a href=\"https:\/\/10why.net\/\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a virtually unlimited amount of content shared online for free just waiting for you, the only question is where to find things you really like. Let\u2019s start with the major platforms so you know where to start. These sometimes work well for intermediate students as well, but as I haven\u2019t curated specific content, I chose to put this in the advanced category.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ixigua.com\/\">\u897f\u74dc\u89c6\u9891<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youku.com\/\">\u4f18\u9177<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bilibili.com\/\">\u54d4\u54e9\u54d4\u54e9<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.douyin.com\/?enter=guide\">\u6597\u97f3<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/\">YouTube<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While YouTube is blocked in China, it\u2019s still an excellent platform for learning Chinese, especially if you\u2019re using YouTube in your native language anyway. There\u2019s a plethora of content there, and here are some of my favourites, including some I\u2019ve mentioned separately above:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-science-in-chinese-with-liyonglelaoshi\/\">\u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08<\/a> (link to my article about it)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/results?search_query=%E9%94%B5%E9%94%B5%E4%B8%89%E4%BA%BA%E8%A1%8C\">\u9535\u9535\u4e09\u4eba\u884c<\/a> (mentioned above)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/results?search_query=%E5%9C%86%E6%A1%8C%E6%B4%BE\">\u5706\u684c\u6d3e<\/a> (mentioned above)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/TESTVCN\">TESTV<\/a> (review channel done right)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCQtwvRQWnT5Buh9hpvNNryQ\">\u67f4\u77e5\u9053<\/a> (popular science)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/%E6%89%8B%E5%B7%A5%E8%80%BFHandyGeng\">\u624b\u5de5\u803f<\/a> (hilarious mechanic\/inventor\/entertainer)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also, check the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/hashtag\/1379%E5%8F%B7%E7%9B%91%E5%90%AC%E7%AB%99\">#1379\u53f7\u76d1\u542c\u7ad9<\/a> hashtag I also mention under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#audiobooks\">audiobooks<\/a>, which collect almost five thousand clips on YouTube, many with audio only.<\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Infinite and varied content<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>Often in video format (although you can rip the audio or just listen), can be hard to find high-quality content you actually like<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"science-in-chinese-with\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"science-in-chinese-with\">Science in Chinese with \u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08<\/h4>\n<p>\u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08 is a science teacher at a prestigious school in Beijing, but also used to have a very popular channel on YouTube (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCSs4A6HYKmHA2MG_0z-F0xw\">2 million subscribers<\/a>) and still has one on \u897f\u74dc\u89c6\u9891 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ixigua.com\/home\/4234740937\/?wid_try=1\">15 million fans<\/a>). To date, he has published almost 400 videos, mostly dealing with mathematics and the natural sciences, but also other topics such as finance, biology and statistics. Most of these are available for free.<\/p>\n<p>I like \u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08 a lot and find almost all of his videos interesting in some way. In content, it\u2019s similar to many big YouTube science channels in English, such as Veritasium, although the style is very different. I\u2019ve watched or listened to almost all videos on his channel, so I\u2019ve probably spent more time with this resource than any other specific recommendation on this list! I wrote an article about \u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08 in which I go into much more detail: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-science-in-chinese-with-liyonglelaoshi\/\">Learning science in Chinese with \u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"mdGtEGHs7H\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-science-in-chinese-with-liyonglelaoshi\/\">Learning science in Chinese with \u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Learning science in Chinese with \u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-science-in-chinese-with-liyonglelaoshi\/embed\/#?secret=xa3RGWiVPe#?secret=mdGtEGHs7H\" data-secret=\"mdGtEGHs7H\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Very good content, interesting ideas and pedagogically excellent<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>He speaks really fast, his handwriting will be illegible for most learners<\/p>\n<p><b>Sample video 1:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bilibili.com\/video\/BV1dt411b7SC\/\">\u5916\u661f\u4eba\u5b58\u5728\u5417\uff1f\u4eba\u7c7b\u4e3a\u4ec0\u4e48\u770b\u4e0d\u5230\u5916\u661f\u6587\u660e\uff1f\u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08\u8bb2\u8d39\u7c73\u6096\u8bba<\/a><br \/>\n<b>Sample video 2:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bilibili.com\/video\/BV15b411N7XK\/\">\u70e7\u8111\u9762\u8bd5\u9898\uff1a\u8001\u9f20\u548c\u6bd2\u836f\u95ee\u9898\u600e\u4e48\u89e3\uff1f\u4e8c\u8fdb\u5236\u548c\u6613\u7ecf\u516b\u5366\u6709\u5565\u5173\u7cfb\uff1f\u674e\u6c38\u4e50\u8001\u5e08\u544a\u8bc9\u4f60<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"section\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"section\">\u9535\u9535\u4e09\u4eba\u884c\/\u5706\u684c\u6d3e<\/h4>\n<p>One of my favourite listening resources used to be \u9535\u9535\u4e09\u4eba\u884c, hosted by \u7ac7\u6587\u6fe4, and it still is, even though the show was closed down a few years ago. The program aired daily for over fifteen years, so there\u2019s a virtually unlimited amount of content still available, most of it is easy to access through podcast platforms such as Spotify, and many episodes can also be found on YouTube.<\/p>\n<p>Here, I also recommend \u5706\u684c\u6d3e, which is the spiritual sequel of \u9535\u9535\u4e09\u4eba\u884c with the same host and a similar style, although with different and maybe less sensitive content. The show is still going strong as of 2022 and is excellent for advanced listening practice! You can easily find the show on YouTube or any of the Chinese video streaming sites, as well as various podcast providers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinese-listening-practice-with-%e9%94%b5%e9%94%b5%e4%b8%89%e4%ba%ba%e8%a1%8c\/\">I\u2019ve written an article about why \u9535\u9535\u4e09\u4eba\u884c is great, and it mostly applies to \u5706\u684c\u6d3e as well.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"f79eoO0GbH\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinese-listening-practice-with-%e9%94%b5%e9%94%b5%e4%b8%89%e4%ba%ba%e8%a1%8c\/\">Chinese listening practice with \u9535\u9535\u4e09\u4eba\u884c<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Chinese listening practice with \u9535\u9535\u4e09\u4eba\u884c&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinese-listening-practice-with-%e9%94%b5%e9%94%b5%e4%b8%89%e4%ba%ba%e8%a1%8c\/embed\/#?secret=jSR5J4d9U3#?secret=f79eoO0GbH\" data-secret=\"f79eoO0GbH\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Huge catalogue of old episodes, variety of guests and topics, interesting content<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>\u9535\u9535\u4e09\u4eba\u884c is no longer being produced (but \u5706\u684c\u6d3e is still running)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"audiobooks\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"audiobooks\">Audiobooks<\/h4>\n<p>Breaking Chinese down into bite-sized chunks is great for beginners, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/bite-sized-learning-isnt-enough-to-learn-chinese\/\">but when you\u2019ve reached an advanced level, switching audio clips every few minutes becomes annoying<\/a>. If you want to listen for hours, you need some continuity where you can get into something and stay there. This also allows you to adapt to language in a certain style and genre.<\/p>\n<p>Audiobooks are the perfect solution. A book is typically somewhere between eight and fifteen hours, which means a lot of listening practice. Unless your Chinese is awesome, you probably want to re-listen to parts of it, maybe more than once, so you can get many hours of learning from a single book. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-chinese-through-audio-books\/\">I\u2019ve written more about how to use audiobooks for learning Chinese here, including tips on how to find them.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"P3Th2JzQFL\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-chinese-through-audio-books\/\">Learning Chinese through audiobooks<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Learning Chinese through audiobooks&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-chinese-through-audio-books\/embed\/#?secret=3HyKRQReZ8#?secret=P3Th2JzQFL\" data-secret=\"P3Th2JzQFL\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a name=\"take-care-when-choosing-an-audiobook-for-chinese-listening-practice\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"take-care-when-choosing-an-audiobook-for-chinese-listening-practice\">Take care when choosing an audiobook for Chinese listening practice<\/h4>\n<p>When choosing an audiobook in Chinese, try to choose a book you really want to listen to, and that you choose something which is not outrageously difficult. I can&#8217;t say what will work for you, but you should try several books before you settle on one. It\u2019s usually easier to find excerpts in text format online, which is good enough to tell you if the book is at an okay level.<\/p>\n<p>You can often find audiobooks on major streaming sites. For example,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/hashtag\/1379%E5%8F%B7%E7%9B%91%E5%90%AC%E7%AB%99\"> this hashtag on YouTube has almost five thousand videos<\/a>, many of which are science fiction audiobooks.<\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Hours of listening with the same voice and coherent content<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>Written Chinese read aloud is much harder than spoken Chinese<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"podcasts-for-native-speakers\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"podcasts-for-native-speakers\">Podcasts for native speakers<\/h4>\n<p>I spend roughly half of my listening time on audiobooks and the other half on podcasts, but I\u2019ve started listening more and more to podcasts in recent years. The great thing about podcasts is that they are easy to access through a variety of platforms and apps, all of which are highly suitable for listening.<\/p>\n<p>What do I mean by that? Many of the other resources I have recommended here come with videos, can be hard to access on the move and come with several other restrictions, such as not being available when you turn your phone\u2019s screen off or requiring you to download them in advance.<\/p>\n<p>Podcast apps are great because you never run out of content, you can adjust playback speed, archive episodes for later, download what you need in advance with just a few taps and much more. As I\u2019ve argued in the introduction to this article, making listening easy is very important if you want to listen a lot, and podcasts are a great way to achieve this.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few podcasts I like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/1615939013\">\u534a\u62ff\u94c1 | \u5546\u4e1a\u6c89\u6d6e\u5f55<\/a> (business story podcast)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/1573189055\">\u58f0\u52a8\u65e9\u5496\u5561<\/a> (daily business news podcast)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/1525679409\">\u94e5\u94e5\u79d1\u5e7b\u7535\u6ce2 &#8211; \u672a\u6765\u4e8b\u52a1\u7ba1\u7406\u5c40<\/a> (science fiction podcast)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/1613244624\">\u75b2\u60eb\u5a07\u5a03 CyberPink<\/a> (culture podcast)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve talked more about podcasts here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-podcasts-for-learning-chinese\/\">The best podcasts for learning Chinese.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"dpoonYnRM1\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-podcasts-for-learning-chinese\/\">The best podcasts for learning Chinese in 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The best podcasts for learning Chinese in 2025&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-best-podcasts-for-learning-chinese\/embed\/#?secret=NJ62gR1cKi#?secret=dpoonYnRM1\" data-secret=\"dpoonYnRM1\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Infinite and varied content<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>None, really, this is one of the best ways of practising listening ability<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"live-streaming-of-games-and-sports\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"live-streaming-of-games-and-sports\">Live streaming of games and sports<\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-15192 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/taichi-2-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Learning Tai Chi with others is a great way to improve your Chinese.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/taichi-2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/taichi-2.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>In order to be able to listen as much as you should, it\u2019s essential that you are able to channel your interests to access content in Chinese. Streamed commentary on games and sports is a great example of this.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/practising-sports-to-learn-chinese\/\">Practising sports is great for learning Chinese<\/a>, but watching games can also be great. I\u2019m more interested in practising myself than watching, but I have watched a lot of gymnastics in Chinese.<br \/>\n<a name=\"video-games-are-great-for-improving-chinese-listening-ability\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"video-games-are-great-for-improving-chinese-listening-ability\">Video games are great for improving Chinese listening ability<\/h4>\n<p>The same is true for video games, which I enjoy watching more for some reason. I\u2019ve watched a few hundred hours of mostly Starcraft 2 and Valorant matches in Chinese. I\u2019ve written more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/diablo-3-and-starcraft-2-playing-computer-games-in-chinese\/\">about games in general<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-chinese-with-starcraft-2\/\">Starcraft 2<\/a> in particular.<\/p>\n<p>In order to channel your other interests to learn more Chinese, you need to focus on things you are truly interested in. It must be something that\u2019s so interesting that you\u2019re willing to increase the effort required and still have enough motivation to feel a strong urge to continue. Of course, it gets easier after a while, but it can be hard when you watch your first match.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-9286 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sc2kerr-300x297.png\" alt=\"Playing games like StarCraft 2 with Chinese audio and subtitles is a great way of learning.\" width=\"300\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sc2kerr.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sc2kerr-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>I can\u2019t really suggest specific channels to follow since it\u2019s so dependent on what you want to watch, but YouTube is a great place to start; simply use Chinese to search for the game\/sport you\u2019re interested in! YouTube will also help you find more related content once the algorithm understands that you like this stuff. You can, of course, also use the other video-sharing platforms I\u2019ve mentioned above.<\/p>\n<p>If you have specific suggestions for how to watch a lot of sports in Chinese, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-listening-resource-collections-for-learning-chinese\/#comments\">please leave a comment below<\/a>, and I\u2019ll consider adding your resource here.<\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Combining a hobby with learning Chinese is great<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>Steep learning curve at first, can be hard to find exactly the content you want<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"good-old-radio-analogue-and-digital\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"good-old-radio-analogue-and-digital\">Good old radio (analogue and digital)<\/h4>\n<p>In this digital era, the line between radio and podcast is rather blurred, as many radio programs are also available as podcasts, and you can listen to radio shows digitally. One meaningful difference is that radio stations program their content and provide you with a mix of content, topics and voices, whereas when it comes to podcasts, you normally choose exactly what you want to listen to (and don\u2019t listen to anything else).<\/p>\n<p>For language learning purposes, radio has some advantages over podcasts (just like a printed magazine has advantages over reading online), which is why I\u2019m recommending it here. Content is juxtaposed in a way you would never encounter if you chose all the content yourself, so you might have a program about the life of ants, followed by a newsreel, followed by a program helping you improve your singing.<\/p>\n<p>While you could recreate this with handpicked podcasts, it would be hard. Radio is a way of breaking out of your filter bubble a little bit, both linguistically and otherwise. For classification here, radio is where you can tune in (analogue or digital) to stream. If you pick your own programs, see the podcast entry instead.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.am774.com\/\">\u5317\u4eac\u5e7f\u64ad\u7f51<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rti.org.tw\/\">RTI\u4e2d\u592e\u5ee3\u64ad\u96fb\u81fa (Taiwan)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Varied content, no need to actively look for new material<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>Increased variety means it\u2019s more challenging too<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"tv-and-movies-2\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"tv-and-movies-2\">TV and movies<\/h4>\n<p>I mentioned TV and movies on the intermediate level as well, but in my opinion, it\u2019s at an advanced level where these turn into truly amazing resources. As an intermediate learner, you have to study a lot to be able to make full sense of what you\u2019re watching, but even if there might be things you don\u2019t get immediately as an advanced learner, it\u2019s much easier to enjoy watching something if you don\u2019t have to look up every other word.<br \/>\n<a name=\"where-to-find-chinese-tv-shows-and-movies-for-listening-practice\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"where-to-find-chinese-tv-shows-and-movies-for-listening-practice\">Where to find Chinese TV shows and movies for listening practice<\/h4>\n<p>If you\u2019re in China, you can watch TV the good old-fashioned way, but for most people (including most who actually are in China), watching online is easier. Here are some popular websites you can check out:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iqiyi.com\/\">\u7231\u5947\u827a<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/w.mgtv.com\/\">\u8292\u679cTV<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.le.com\/\">\u4e50\u89c6\u89c6\u9891<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/isuper.tv\/taiwan-tv-live\/\">\u53f0\u7063\u96fb\u8996\u7dda\u4e0a\u770b<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also, remember that the video-sharing platforms I mentioned above often have TV shows and sometimes full movies as well. If you have a specific recommendation for how to watch ordinary TV channels internationally, please let me know!<\/p>\n<p>Even if this is more relevant for intermediate learners, I still want to mention I<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jiong3.com\/gradedwatching\/\">Graded Watching<\/a> again, which has more than a hundred TV shows analysed by difficulty.<br \/>\n<a name=\"further-reading-and-recommendations-about-chinese-tv-series-and-movies\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"further-reading-and-recommendations-about-chinese-tv-series-and-movies\">Further reading and recommendations about Chinese TV series and movies<\/h4>\n<p>There are also many articles about TV series and movies here on Hacking Chinese:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/improving-your-chinese-while-watching-tv-shows\/\">Improving your Chinese while watching TV shows<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/a-learners-guide-to-tv-shows-in-chinese-part-1\/\">A learner\u2019s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 1<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/a-learners-guide-to-tv-shows-in-chinese-part-2\/\">A learner\u2019s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 2<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Infinite and varied content<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>Often in video format (although you can rip the audio or just listen), can be hard to find high-quality content you actually like<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"lectures-and-academic-content-in-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"lectures-and-academic-content-in-chinese\">Lectures and academic content in Chinese<\/h4>\n<p>A common misconception about language learning is that academic lectures, articles and textbooks in the target language make up the hardest content there is. This is simply not true. Consider the fact that in science, being clear and consistent is a virtue, whereas in literature, consistency is another word for boring. In my experience, academic content in Chinese is considerably easier than literature and fiction, even though you do, of course, need a certain amount of prior knowledge in a relevant area.<\/p>\n<p>The best way to approach academic Chinese is to do so with a topic you\u2019re already familiar with. This way, you know most of what they are talking about already, and so your main challenge is to figure out how this is done in Chinese. Once you\u2019re familiar with this, you can learn new things as well.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to listening, there are many lecture series, presentations and seminars available online, for free. As is often the case when it comes to advanced content, interest should be the main factor when you choose what to focus on, so I can\u2019t help much there. If you\u2019re like me and like science fiction, you can check out the lecture series linked below.<br \/>\n<a name=\"lectures-and-academic-content-for-advanced-chinese-listening-practice\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"lectures-and-academic-content-for-advanced-chinese-listening-practice\">Lectures and academic content for advanced Chinese listening practice<\/h4>\n<p>Here are some platforms you can use to find interesting content (if you know of more or better ways of accessing courses in Chinese, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-listening-resource-collections-for-learning-chinese\/#comments\">please let me know by leaving a comment below<\/a>):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coursera.org\/search?query=free&amp;index=prod_all_launched_products_term_optimization&amp;partners=Peking%20University&amp;partners=Shanghai%20Jiao%20Tong%20University&amp;partners=Fudan%20University\">Courses from Chinese universities at Coursera<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/ocw.aca.ntu.edu.tw\/ntu-ocw\/\">\u81fa\u5927\u958b\u653e\u5f0f\u8ab2\u7a0b NTU OpenCourseWare (Taiwan)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ocw.nthu.edu.tw\/ocw\/\">\u570b\u7acb\u6e05\u83ef\u5927\u5b78\u958b\u653e\u5f0f\u8ab2\u7a0b OpenCourseWare (Taiwan)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Interesting if you choose the right topic, and learn more than just the language<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>Some effort is required to get started, and requires certain basic knowledge in a field<\/p>\n<p><b>Sample lecture series: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/ocw.nthu.edu.tw\/ocw\/index.php?page=course&amp;cid=3\">\u79d1\u5e7b\u6982\u8ad6<\/a> by \u912d\u904b\u9d3b\uff08\u570b\u7acb\u6e05\u83ef\u5927\u5b78\uff09<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLOUkcRyvGKSJo-BUs1YQH9MEBeYCY2viW\">easily accessible on YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"news-and-current-affairs-in-chinese\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"news-and-current-affairs-in-chinese\">News and current affairs in Chinese<\/h4>\n<p>News in Chinese is a tricky beast for several completely unrelated reasons. On the one hand, if you\u2019re interested in current affairs and want to follow what\u2019s going on in the world, it would be natural to incorporate this into your Chinese learning routine at an advanced level. I have listened to approximately 5,000 hours of The Economist, and while it\u2019s hard to say how much that has improved my English, it\u2019s likely to be quite a lot.<\/p>\n<p>Problem number one is that there aren\u2019t many Chinese-language news outlets of high quality that aim at an international audience. If you\u2019re only after the language, this is not a problem, but if you also want to learn more about the world, you should be mindful of what channels you choose. Simply replacing your English-language media with Chinese-language counterparts, as I usually suggest, is not unproblematic here. Listen as much as you can, but add a healthy dose of critical thinking.<\/p>\n<p>Problem number two is that news is hard in Chinese, much harder than in English. This is probably because the formal, written Chinese used in news articles and broadcasts are further from the colloquial spoken language than English. The step from classroom English to real news is not that big if you choose your news outlet carefully, but the step from classroom Chinese to real-world news is very big indeed.<br \/>\n<a name=\"news-sources-for-advanced-chinese-listening-practice\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"news-sources-for-advanced-chinese-listening-practice\">News sources for advanced Chinese listening practice<\/h4>\n<p>That being said, here are some news sources you can check out. Please note that I have chosen these purely from a language-learning perspective. Please also note that you can find lots of news on video and podcast platforms as well (see the other categories in this article).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cctv.com\/\">\u4e2d\u56fd\u4e2d\u592e\u7535\u89c6\u53f0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sina.cn\/\">\u65b0\u6d6a\u65b0\u95fb<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sohu.com\/\">\u641c\u72d0\u65b0\u95fb<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wwitv.com\/television\/201.htm\">Various news channels (Taiwan, via wwiTV)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.8world.com\/\">8\u89c6\u754c (Singapore)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can also check out <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sina.com.cn\/\">\u65b0\u6d6a\u7f51\u65b0\u95fb\u4e2d\u5fc3<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcc.com.tw\/\">\u4e2d\u5ee3\u5168\u7403\u8cc7\u8a0a\u7db2<\/a>, which I recommended <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/10-best-free-chinese-reading-resources-beginner-intermediate-advanced\/\">in my article about the best reading resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Pros: <\/b>Interesting topics, wide variety of topics and language, more formal language, enormous amounts of content available<br \/>\n<b>Cons: <\/b>Difficult (especially if based on written sources), hard to find high-quality content, often in video format, even if you only want the video<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"whats-new\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"whats-new\">What&#8217;s new?<\/h3>\n<p>I keep updating this article with more and better recommendations. If you have read this post before and just want to know what I have changed since the previous time I updated it, you&#8217;ve come to the right place! I will keep this change log brief, as it probably doesn&#8217;t add much value to most readers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2026 update<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>General<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added a zero beginner category.<\/span> This is to help people with no experience in Chinese find good resources to get started. There&#8217;s a big difference between knowing nothing and knowing 100 words!<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Removed resource tagging to reduce clutter.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Zero beginner<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Melnyks Chinese.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Mandarin sound and tone references.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added tone course.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Slow &amp; Clear Chinese.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Lazy Chinese &#8211; Comprehensible Input.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Mandarin Click.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Diane Neubauer \u675c\u96c1\u5b50.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Blabla Chinese &#8211; Comprehensible Input.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Shianguu Hsieh (Chinese Story Listening).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Jun &#8211; Stickynote Chinese.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Beginner<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added. Alison Mandarin.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Story learning Chinese with Annie.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Acquire Mandarin.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added Chinese Mandarin Cherry.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Moved Melnyks Chinese to zero beginner.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Updated the name of Lazy Chinese &#8211; Comprehensible Input.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Removed Mandarin Bean.<\/span> While this resource is still useful, the audio is a bit stilted and has very little in the way of visual support.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Removed Chinese Tools &#8211; 40 lessons.<\/span> I don&#8217;t think this ought to be anybody&#8217;s first contact with spoken Mandarin. There are so many good ways of just diving into comprehensible Mandarin (see the zero beginner category), and this resource simply isn&#8217;t good enough.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Removed Popup Chinese.<\/span> Their website has been defunct for many years, and there are better, up-to-date alternatives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2024 update<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Beginner<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/448-ting-gu-shi-xue-zhong-wen-learning-chinese-through-stories\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Learning Chinese through Stories.<\/span><\/a> This is one of the best resources for listening practice in general. It wasn&#8217;t included originally because they lacked enough beginner-oriented content, but this is no longer true.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/250-melnyks-chinese-podcast-slash-audio-course\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Melnyks Chinese.<\/span><\/a> While this podcast contains a lot of English, it&#8217;s the one I dislike the least for pure beginners. It remains very difficult to create listening resources without video support for beginners without relying on English.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Removed <a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/531-chineseforus-youtube\">ChineseForUs<\/a>.<\/span> They have some good playlists, but the good content is buried under lots of mediocre content and is hard to find. The HSK 2 playlist is still worthwhile for beginners.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Removed <a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/337-fun-chinese-mandarin-lessons-for-everyone-chineseskill\">ChineseSkill<\/a>.<\/span> This is not a listening resource and was included because I couldn&#8217;t find enough good beginner content at lower levels. The app is still worthwhile for other reasons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Intermediate<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added <a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/525-da-peng-shuo-zhong-wen-speak-chinese-with-da-peng\">Speak Chinese with Da Peng<\/a>.<\/span> This is a great listening resource for intermediate students with roughly 400 episodes, all available for free.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added <a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/556-dashu-mandarin-podcast\">Dashu Mandarin<\/a>.<\/span> This podcast is suitable for the upper range of the intermediate level, featuring natural conversations with several speakers, many of them learners.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added <a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/550-xia-che-xue-zhong-wen-convo-chinese\">Convo Chinese<\/a>.<\/span> This resource is great for natural-sounding, informal conversations among native speakers. It&#8217;s towards the more difficult end of the intermediate level.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Removed <a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/494-mandarin-bean-learn-and-practice-chinese\">Mandarin Bean<\/a>.<\/span> While a useful resource, this no longer cuts the best listening resources for intermediate learners. The stories are too short, harder to access and less interesting than the podcasts I&#8217;ve added instead.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Removed <a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/245-man-su-zhong-wen-slow-chinese-cultural-podcast-for-chinese-learners\">Slow Chinese<\/a>.<\/span> This is still a great resource, but it was discontinued many years ago. The archive is still accessible, but no new content is coming out, and some of the old content is out-of-date. Episodes are sometimes very short, too.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Removed <a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories\/399-du-chinese-mobile-app-for-chinese-reading-practice\">Du Chinese<\/a>.<\/span> This is still a great app, primarily for reading, but also for listening. I have removed it because there are better alternatives aimed specifically at listening that are also easier to access. I still recommend it for beginner listening and reading in general, however.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advanced<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Added a bunch of podcasts.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learners\/#index\">Back to the free Chinese listening resources index<\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"500-chinese-learning-resources-sorted-and-tagged-by-level-topic-and-type\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"500-chinese-learning-resources-sorted-and-tagged-by-level-topic-and-type\">500+ Chinese learning resources sorted and tagged by level, topic and type<\/h3>\n<p>I have spent many years building up a huge library of resources for learning Chinese, including those mentioned in this article. If you&#8217;re looking for more listening resources or resources for other areas of learning Chinese, head over to <a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\">Hacking Chinese Resources<\/a>! There, you can find articles sorted by difficulty:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/Beginner\">Beginner<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/Intermediate\">Intermediate<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/Advanced\">Advanced<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But also by topic:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories?topic=Listening\">Listening<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories?topic=Speaking\">Speaking<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories?topic=Reading\">Reading<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories?topic=Writing\">Writing<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories?topic=Chinese-in-context\">Chinese in context<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories?topic=Vocabulary\">Vocabulary<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/challenges.hackingchinese.com\/resources\/stories?topic=Grammar\">Grammar<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230;and more!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/resources.hackingchinese.com\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-14514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/banner_hacking-chinese-resources-1024x187.png\" alt=\"Visit Hacking Chinese Resources for more than 500 links, sorted by level, topic and type.\" width=\"782\" height=\"143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/banner_hacking-chinese-resources-1024x187.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/banner_hacking-chinese-resources-300x55.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/banner_hacking-chinese-resources-768x140.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/banner_hacking-chinese-resources-1536x280.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/banner_hacking-chinese-resources.png 1967w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 782px) 100vw, 782px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"what-are-your-favourite-free-mandarin-listening-resources\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"what-are-your-favourite-free-mandarin-listening-resources\">What are your favourite free Mandarin listening resources?<\/h3>\n<p>This article is based on a lot of research and took dozens of hours to compile, but I&#8217;m sure that I missed good resources and new resources might have popped up recently, too. What&#8217;s your favourite free listening resource? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-10-best-free-listening-resource-collections-for-learning-chinese\/#comments\">Please leave a comment below to let me and others know!<\/a> Don&#8217;t forget to mention why you like it!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0<\/strong>This article, originally published in 2014, was rewritten from scratch and massively updated many times, most recently in 2026. See &#8220;What&#8217;s new?&#8221; for a list of changes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listening is the most important skill of all, because it accelerates learning and is crucial for social integration. What are the best free Chinese listening resources out there for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,9,10,15,18],"tags":[63,1226,1214,1093,693,786,1229,252,1385,1221,1218,1230,335,1088,1213,1220,1334,1223,1231,1100,1227,1216,472,478,1212,695,1217,1228,1219,1222,1224,1225,1080,682],"class_list":["post-5881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advanced","category-beginner","category-immersion-and-integration","category-intermediate","category-listening","category-recommended-resources","tag-audio","tag-audiobooks","tag-bumpy-chinese","tag-chinese-tools","tag-chinesepod","tag-du-chinese","tag-good-old-radio","tag-hacking-chinese-resources","tag-lcts","tag-learn-taiwanese-mandarin","tag-learning-chinese-through-stories","tag-lectures-and-academic-content","tag-listening-material","tag-mandarin-bean","tag-mandarin-click","tag-maomi-chinese","tag-melnyks-chinese","tag-music-and-songs","tag-news-and-current-affairs","tag-podcast-episode","tag-podcasts-for-native-speakers","tag-popup-chinese","tag-recommendations","tag-resource-collections","tag-slow-and-clear-chinese","tag-slow-chinese","tag-sound-references","tag-sports-and-game-streaming","tag-teatime-chinese","tag-tv-and-movies","tag-video-sharing-platforms","tag-1225","tag-1080","tag-682"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The best free Chinese listening practice for all levels<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Listening is the most important skill, as it boosts other areas and accelerates learning. 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