A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
大理：山和湖
Dali: A Lake, a Mountain, and Three Cups of Tea
About this story
Walk beside Erhai Lake in Dali, look up at Cangshan, and drink three cups of Bai tea. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 Chinese listening episode that runs about 3 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 8 key vocabulary words such as 湖、山、茶 and walks through 3 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
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原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Today I'm in Dali.
Dali isn't big.
Dali has a very big lake.
This lake is called Erhai.
Dali also has a mountain.
This mountain is called Cangshan.
The mountain is very big.
The lake is below, the mountain is above.
Dali is under the mountain, and beside the lake.
In the morning, I walk by the lake.
There's a lot of water in the lake.
I look at the mountain.
There are clouds on the mountain.
I look at the lake.
There are mountains in the lake too.
A man is sitting by the lake.
He looks at the lake, not at me.
I say: do you work here?
He says: yes.
He says: I come here every day.
I say: looking at the same mountain and lake every day — don't you want to go and see something else?
He says: the mountain isn't the same.
He says: today's mountain and yesterday's mountain are not the same.
I look at the mountain.
I don't know what's different.
He says: live here a few days and you'll know.
At noon, I go to the old town.
The old town is small and there are a lot of people.
Some people live here.
Some people are here to look.
I see a lot of white houses.
The houses are big, and very white.
Someone says to me: this is a Bai house.
I say: Bai?
She says: yes, we've lived here for many years.
Her clothes are very beautiful.
The clothes are white.
I say: your clothes look really good.
She's very pleased.
In the afternoon, she invites me to drink tea.
There are three teas.
The first tea is very bitter.
The second tea is very sweet.
The third tea isn't bitter, and isn't sweet.
I say: what tea is this?
She says: this is called three-course tea.
She says: the first is bitter, the second is sweet, the third you think about yourself.
I drink the three teas.
I think: this is the same as Dali.
Now, I go back to the lake.
There are stars in the sky.
There are stars in the lake too.
Nobody is talking.
I sit for a long time.
I think about what that man said.
Today's mountain and yesterday's mountain are not the same.
I'll come and look again tomorrow.
Would you rather go to a very big city, or come to Dali?
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Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 1. Three cups of it, in order.
HSK 1. Live here a few days and you'll 知道.
HSK 1. Used for the Bai woman's clothes.
Erhai, the lake the whole town sits beside.
Cangshan, which looks different every day.
The first of the three cups.
The second of the three cups.
The word the fisherman keeps negating about the mountain.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法有的 … 有的 …
Splits a group into two kinds.
有的人住在这里。
A 和 B 不一样
States that two things differ.
他说：今天的山和昨天的山不一样。
…，就 …
就 marks the second event as following directly from the first.
他说：你在这里住几天，就知道了。
Proper Nouns
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