You’ve got Deezer, Spotify, Rdio and more when you want to listen to Western music online. What about Chinese songs ? Where do you go to hear the Chinese top hits and discover new Chinese artists? Good news, there are a zillion of music sites in China. Even better news, these sites still let you listen to music for free. Most don’t even require you to sign up to listen, unless you want to save your new-found fave artists, of course. In short, it’s really easy to start improving your Chinese by listening to Chinese music!

One of the most well known music sites is surely QQ Music.

Top Chinese music #1: On QQ, Y is for 音乐

QQ Music is brought to you by Tencent, the Chinese web giant that made instant messaging and social sharing uber-popular in China through its QQ messaging service (their latest report stated they had over 700 million active users…).

Using QQ 音乐 to listen to Chinese music

Like most QQ services (QQ IM, QQ Mail….), which are known for their user-friendly qualities, QQ Music – QQ 音乐 in Chinese – is pretty straight forward and easy to use. Let’s go explore QQ 音乐 together and you’ll be listening to Chinese music in no time!

QQ Music offers a wealth of music, ranging from International hits to more confidential artists.

QQ Music’s home page lets you start listening to Chinese songs in seconds

To listen specifically to Chinese music, you have several options.

On the homepage, you can browse and pick any artist that you want to listen to. To check if he or she is Chinese and/or singing in Mandarin Chinese, simply click on the song to view its page or on the artist’s profile and see what is listed under 语言 (Yǔyán, language). If it says 国语 Guóyǔ or 华语 Huáyǔ, which both mean Chinese, you are good to go.

K-pop is great but for the purpose of this article, we’re only looking for Chinese pop!

You can also scroll down to other sections in the page, which you’ll be able to filter by language (华语, Huáyǔ, Chinese is what you’re looking for).

A few words to know to explore the homepage:

音乐: Yīnyuè = music

语言: Yǔyán = language

首页: Shǒuyè = Homepage

华语: Huáyǔ = Chinese language

国语: Guóyǔ = Chinese language (Mandarin)

Top Chinese music #2: Enjoy the Music Library

Another good option is to go to QQ’s Music Library, which highlights the most popular artists, albums and songs . Whether you’re viewing the library by artists (歌手, gēshǒu), albums(专辑 Zhuānjí) or top charts (排行榜 Páiháng bǎng), you can very easily find the Chinese-language artists and songs. Using the filters that are always on the left in the library section, select 华语, for Chinese.

The 排行榜 (Páiháng bǎng) section is a great way to see who’s trending in China right now.

For some reason, in the album part, 国语 (Mandarin) is used instead of 华语 but it’ll get you the same results.

 A few terms to help you browse the 乐库

乐库: Lè kù  = Music library

排行榜: Páiháng bǎng  = Top charts

歌手: gēshǒu = singer

专辑: Zhuānjí = album

Do you like Chinese guys, Chinese girls or both?

We’re talking about singers, of course. On QQ, you can not only select only Chinese language music, you can also choose what gender singer you want: Male, Female or Duets, take your pick!

Your options:

男歌手: Nán gēshǒu = male singer

女歌手: Nǚ gēshǒu = female singer

组合: Zǔhé = groups; duets

Get your fill of personal info!

For those of you with an extreme fan/stalker side, you’ll be glad to know singer profiles on QQMusic are full of essential information, such as how much does my favorite singer weigh? Does he or she like cosplay? Definitely, information you couldn’t live without!

We kid, we kid but reading their bios and fave occupations are also a cool way to practice your Chinese! So go ahead, be as stalker-ish as you want.

Sing along in Chinese

QQ Music is also a very useful tool to learn Chinese thanks to its lyric feature. Because you can easily view each song’s lyrics, pretty soon you’ll be singing in along in Chinese and learning Chinese without even realizing it!

To access the lyrics, simply click on a song you like. If lyrics are available, they’ll appear below the song’s information, under the category “歌词” (Gēcí lyrics):

You can also read the lyrics directly in the player, which is on the left hand side of the screen Just click on 词 (Cí – Words) to see them, like so:

The QQ Radio section has a similar read-along feature.

Top Chinese music #3: Exploring other options: Douban and Xiami

If QQ isn’t quite your fit, try exploring Douban Music and Xiami. Both also let you listen to streaming music for free and filter by location and language.

On Douban, you can even choose to listen to Chinese music from mainland China (内地 Nèidì – and 大陆 dàlù), 台湾 (táiwān Taiwan), 香港 (xiānggǎng, Hong Kong) or in 粤语 (yuèyǔ cantonese). On Xiami, you also have the option to download songs. The fee they charge per song is pretty low, too!

03/12 UPDATE: Here are a few more sites to try out! 

– Baidu (China’s Google, if not bigger) has its own music site : Iit may not be as user-friendly and visually pleasing as QQ MUsic but you’ll be sure to find what’s really trending in China right now on this site. Sure it may be on our Top Chinese music.

Now all you have left to do is explore and figure out who your favorite Chinese singers are!

Know of a good Chinese music resources we left out? Who are your favorite Chinese singers? Let us know!

Happy listening!

The Nincha Team

P.S: As a bonus, here’s one of our cheesy but favorite songs! It’s called Superman, by NESE. The chorus is super easy : 我是Superman, 你是Loser!

Ninchanese is a new platform where you’ll have a blast learning Chinese! We’re still working on it for now, so sign up to try the beta for free when we launch! Check out our trailer and stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Weibo.

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One thing though: they’re all in Chinese. Just like the real HSK test will be. Don’t worry though! This step by step walkthrough will get you started with this great HSK test practice in no time.

Next stop: straight As! photo credit: DrWurm 

Take a mock HSK test online

How do you make sure you’re ready to take the HSK before leaping in and taking the actual test? A mock HSK online!  They’re great to do HSK training in *nearly* real test-like conditions (except you’re doing it from the comfort of your own home!):  you’re timed, you can’t pause the recordings or play them again, you can’t go check a word in the dictionary…

To do a mock online HSK test, head to the Institute Confucius online. This site is great to prepare taking HSK exams for free.

This site, mind you, is all in Chinese. but it’s full of great resources for wannabe HSK takers, so even if you’re beginning in Chinese and preparing for the HSK 1, don’t let the “it’s all in Chinese” stop you. Besides, you’ll know where the HSK related stuff is because that’s where “HSK” is written in roman letters.

That and we circled that stuff in green. Update: looks like there’s an English version now, too.  Just in case, here’s a walkthrough of the different steps you need to take on the site to be able to start a mock HSK test, live and online!

For each level, you can access two kinds of HSK test practice: a shortened version —> 缩减版  or a complete version —-> 完整版.

There’s also a third option, called 真题集. This takes you to somewhere else where you can access and take several past HSK tests. You’ll need to create a free account for that. Once you’ve created an account, the test taking procedure is the same as below. Anyhoo, back to where we were.

Mock HSK test taking 101

Click on the test version and level you want. You then arrive here:

Click on the button that says 我 要 考式 (Wǒ yào kǎoshì). This means: I want to take the test!

Anna from Russia

Then you get an HSK test number. I guess you could change it, but I don’t really see the need to bother. Just prepare to be Anna from Russia, that’s all

Click on the left-hand side button to confirm. The right-hand side button is to leave. Don’t Western sites usually do it the other way around? Interesting.

Ok, once you’ve clicked the button, it’s now going to tell you you’re Anna from Russia (俄罗斯 – éluósī). Confirm.

Then, you’ll be asked to check and adjust if necessary your sound level. I left it as is and it worked fine.

Next up, choosing your weapon. It being online and all, the keyboard is what I suggest you go for.

Next up, agreeing to their rules and regulations. Click on 我 同意 – Wǒ tóngyì (I agree).

Then, the test loads. From paper to computer apparently. Impressive.

Once it’s done loading, you’ll see a screen that tells you the number of questions the test has, and what kind.

Depending on the level, there are two to three parts: 听力 (tīnglì), listening comprehension and 阅读 (yuèdú), reading comprehension. Starting with HSK level three, there’s also a 书写 (shūxiě), writing part.

Now entering the HSK test room!

And that’s it! Ready to go? Click the button. It says 进人 考试 (jìnrù kǎoshì), which means Access the test! (exclamation point added by me).

Off you go!

This virtual room is where you’ll be spending the next hour or more of your life (depending on the level you’re taking).

In the listening part, the test takes you from question to question. Once you’ve listened to all the question, you’ll have a few minutes to go back (using the navigation buttons or the left-hand side menu) and review your answers. In the reading part, you’re free to move along the questions as you wish and answer them in whatever order pleases you. Same with the writing part.

You have a limited time to answer the questions in each section (the numbers in red on the top indicate the amount of time you have left).

If you’re done before the time’s up, all you can do apparently is wait till the time is up. I didn’t find a way to exit this part without exiting the entire test (I clicked the button with the appealing green tick. Do not click this button or you’ll lose everything you just did.)

Once you’ve gone through all sections, and the time’s up, you’ll immediately get an HSK result sheet that tells you how (well) you scored.

For more information on the HSK

Looking for more information on the HSK?  Head to the official Hanban site: Chinese testing. This is where you’ll find a bunch of free resources to help you prepare for the HSK :

• official HSK booklets and information on each level and their specificities.
• complete HSK test samples you can download for each level (for each level, there’s a recording and a corresponding answer booklet.). Then, you can practice the HSK old-school style. No peaking at the answer sheets before the test is over!
• you can also do HSK preparation directly on the site and assess your level by taking a mini-version of each HSK level test.

Last but not least, the site is also where you register to take the test throughout the world.

How to Prepare for the HSK

Not feeling quite ready to take an HSK test yet? That’s okay! A little practice and you’ll be good to go! Our suggestion of the best place to learn the HSK vocabulary, for levels 1 -6? Ninchanese! You’ll also learn the key sentence patterns and grammar patterns to know for the HSK, as well as short dialogues on modern conversational topics to practice your speaking and listening skills in Chinese; two other crucial skills to work on for the HSK tests!  The best part? All the vocab is free to learn and we guarantee you’ll have fun preparing for the HSK and learning to speak Chinese!

Good luck! 加油！Happy HSK test taking!

The Nincha Team

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