Chinese stories for beginners: the best free stories, by HSK level (video)
We measured 704 free Chinese stories on 8 sites against the HSK word lists. The best free stories for each level, with audio, pinyin and real difficulty.
Chapters
- 0:00Start
- 0:18The short answer
- 0:38How we measured
- 1:07The best stories by level
- 2:48Two sites keep to their labels
- 3:25Short HSK 1 stories
- 3:43Who reads the audio?
- 4:16Picture books
- 4:47The libraries compared
- 6:03Read above your level
Transcript
Start
Every free Chinese story site promises stories at your level. So we counted the words in 704 of them. Most ask for more than their label says. From SayMei Guides, by Mei Lin: Chinese stories for beginners, the best free stories at each HSK level.
The short answer
The short answer. For your first stories, use Chinese Graded Reader dot com and Read Mandarin: the two free sites whose stories stay within their HSK level. For real plots with narration, add Shanhai Story and Mandarin Bean. And picture books for children? They look easy, but they're the hardest of all.
How we measured
We picked eight sites that put graded stories on free public pages, with no sign-in. For every story, we split the Chinese into words and looked each one up in the official HSK word lists of 2025. Then one number: the share of a story's words you'd already know at your level. Reading researchers put comfortable reading at 95% to 98%. Below about 90%, you'll lean on the pinyin and English in every line.
The best stories by level
At HSK 1, you know 300 words. Our best first story: Dinner at Our House, on Shanhai Story. Two children share the last egg. You'd know 95% of the words, and it's narrated. On Coco, What Time Is There a Doctor? has every word but one at HSK 1, though there's no audio. For short daily reads, try the HSK 1 pieces on Read Mandarin and Chinese Graded Reader dot com, where nearly every word is on the list. Want a legend? SayMei's The Kitchen God is free in full. You'd know about three words in four. HSK 2 takes you to 500 words, and stories start to have small surprises. In Shanhai Story's Mom's Glasses, everyone hunts for glasses that are on Mom's head. You'd know 94% of the words. For strictly your level, try Good Morning, on Chinese Graded Reader dot com. HSK 3 doubles your list to 1,000 words, and free stories begin to carry real feeling. Shanhai Story's An Old Photograph: a grandson finds his grandmother's lost friend, at 94%. On Read Mandarin, An Unforgettable Birthday: a lonely birthday, until colleagues bring cake, at 97%. HSK 4 is 2,000 words, and stories get long enough to lose yourself in. Shanhai Story's The Last Dinner Before Moving scores 98%: neighbours throw a tenant a farewell dinner. Mandarin Bean's parable, The Weight of a Glass of Water, scores 92%. After HSK 4, free graded stories thin out.
Two sites keep to their labels
Now the big finding. A typical story on Chinese Graded Reader dot com or Read Mandarin uses words from its own HSK level or below, 95% of the time or more. On five other graded sites, it's closer to 83%. That's about one word in six that's new. Our own books come out lower still, at 74%. Chinese Graded Reader dot com says it leaves out every word above a story's level. So if a site's HSK 2 shelf feels hard, it probably is. Go one level down, or keep the pinyin on.
Short HSK 1 stories
Strict grading keeps stories short. A typical HSK 1 story on the free sites runs 50 to 130 characters. One SayMei chapter? 316. But a plot needs room, and the longer stories are where you'll meet more new words.
Who reads the audio?
Who reads the audio? All nine libraries offer audio somewhere, but only six put it on the free page. Mandarin Bean says Chinese teachers record its lessons. Read Mandarin uses your device's Chinese voice, for now. And Chinese Graded Reader dot com uses a computer voice set to very slow. SayMei Stories gives every line audio, with a different voice for each character. Our advice: listen to one story before you commit to a site. The tones you copy come from whatever you hear most.
Picture books
Picture books for children are the hardest of all. Global Storybooks has 40 illustrated stories, each read aloud, but written for children who already speak a language. Its easiest book asks, again and again, 我可以念给谁听呢? Who can I read to? The verb 念, read aloud, is an HSK 5 word. So a typical Level 1 picture book leaves about half its words beyond HSK 1. Use picture books for listening, and let the pictures carry you.
The libraries compared
Read Mandarin has 419 free readings. Mandarin Bean has more than 900 lessons, with Premium at $49 for a year, paid once. Literate Chinese has 279 free stories, and its app costs $12.99 a month. Chinese Graded Reader dot com and Global Storybooks charge for nothing at all. And SayMei Stories, our own library: 166 books in 812 short chapters, from about HSK 1 to HSK 4. Chapters 1 and 2 of every book are free with no sign-up, eight books are free in full, and one more book is free each week. Everything else is $2.99 a month, after a free week. It wins on length and plot, and the pinyin, English and audio are always there. It loses on grading. Our books are the hardest for their labels of any graded library we measured. The Kitchen God opens: 灶王爷住在小宝家的厨房里。他是墙上的一张画。 With only HSK 1 words, 厨房, kitchen, and 墙, wall, are both new. It also stops at about HSK 4, and there's no offline reading.
Read above your level
Most stories you'll want sit a little above your level. So here's the routine. Listen first with the pinyin on, to get the plot. Then read it again in characters only, and look up only the words that block the story. Keep five words for your flashcards. When you rarely look anything up, move up a level. What to do next? Find your level in the finder on the guide page. It sorts all 870 stories we measured by the words you'd know. Start strict, then add plot. Listen before you read. And read one long story a week, with help. Then retell it out loud. You can practise speaking with Mei Lin, SayMei's teacher, in a short spoken lesson at your level. The full guide, with every source, is on the page at saymei dot app.