A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
杭州：路是湖里的泥
Hangzhou: The Lake That Would Vanish If Nobody Dug It
About this story
The 2.8km causeway across West Lake is mud dug off the lake bed in 1089, and the pagoda you see was built in 2002. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 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 西湖、苏堤、泥 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 Hangzhou.
Hangzhou has a lake.
This lake is called West Lake.
West Lake is six point three nine square kilometres.
There are hills on three sides of the lake.
I walk by the lake.
There's a lot of water, and a lot of hills.
I see a road in the water.
This road is on top of the water.
I say: how can there be a road on top of water?
A man says: this road is called the Su Causeway.
He says: the Su Causeway is two point eight kilometres.
He says: there are six bridges on it.
I say: when was this road made?
He says: in 1089.
I say: 1089?
He says: yes, over nine hundred years ago.
I say: who made it?
He says: a man called Su Dongpo.
He says: back then, there was too much mud in West Lake.
He says: he had a lot of people come and dig the mud out.
I say: where did the mud they dug go?
He says: the mud became this road.
I say: this road I'm walking on is mud from the lake?
He says: yes.
I look at this road.
I think: what was in the lake became the road on top of the lake.
In the afternoon, I see a pagoda.
This pagoda is over by the lake.
He says: this pagoda is called Leifeng Pagoda.
He says: the old pagoda fell down.
I say: when did it fall?
He says: in 1924.
I say: how did it fall?
He says: a lot of people came and took things from the pagoda.
He says: too many people took things, so the pagoda fell.
I say: and the pagoda now?
He says: the pagoda now was built in 2002.
I say: so the pagoda I'm looking at isn't the old pagoda.
He says: right.
Now, I sit by the lake.
He says: people have been digging this lake for over a thousand years.
He says: if they don't dig, there'll be too much mud in the lake.
He says: the roads, bridges and pagodas here were all made by people.
He says: what people made is also West Lake.
I look at this lake.
Six point three nine square kilometres of water.
Two point eight kilometres of road.
Over nine hundred years.
I walked around inside all of it today.
When you go somewhere beautiful, do you want to know how it got there?
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Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 1. What you see, and what it is actually made of.
HSK 1. And a road on top of it.
HSK 1. Everything here was made by someone.
6.39 square kilometres, hills on three sides.
2.8 kilometres of road, made from lake mud.
Dug from the bottom, piled into the causeway.
The old one fell in 1924; this one is from 2002.
People have been doing it here for a thousand years.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法怎么会 + verb
Expresses surprise at something seeming impossible.
我说：水上面怎么会有路？
…，就 …
就 marks the direct result.
他说：泥就做了这条路。
是 … 做的
States who or what made something.
他说：现在的塔是二〇〇二年做的。
Proper nouns
专有名词Free account
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