A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
拉萨：走得很慢
Lhasa: The City That Makes You Slow Down
About this story
At high altitude in Lhasa you learn to walk slowly, look up at the Potala, and drink your first butter tea. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 Chinese listening episode that runs about 2 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 高、圆、酥油茶 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 Lhasa.
Lhasa is very high.
Beijing isn't high; Lhasa is very high.
Here, people have to walk slowly.
If I walk fast, it isn't good.
Today I don't walk much.
I sleep in my room, and I drink a lot of water.
Tomorrow, I'll be a bit better.
Tomorrow I'll walk around Lhasa.
Now, I'm a bit better.
In the morning, I go to see a very big building.
This building is called the Potala Palace.
The Potala is very big, and very tall.
The building is white.
A lot of people stand below and look at the Potala.
I look at it for a long time too.
In the afternoon, I go to a road.
This road is called the Barkhor.
This road is a circle.
A lot of people walk on this road.
They all walk in one direction.
Nobody comes back the other way.
I ask someone: where are they going?
He says: they aren't going anywhere.
He says: they walk this road, and when they finish, that's it.
He says: this is our thing.
Many people walk it several times a day.
Some walk in the morning, some walk in the evening.
I walk it once too.
This road isn't long.
But I walk very slowly.
When I finish, I don't want to talk.
I sit down.
Someone invites me to drink tea.
The tea is white.
I take a mouthful.
This tea isn't sweet.
But I take another mouthful.
I ask: what tea is this?
She says: this is called butter tea.
She says: here, you need to drink this.
The weather is cold, so people drink this.
I finish it.
I'm not cold any more.
In the evening, I go to look at the Potala again.
A lot of people are still walking that circular road.
I think: people here walk very slowly.
When I arrived, I walked slowly too.
Now, I don't want to walk fast.
When you go somewhere very high, will you walk fast, or slowly?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 1. Repeated more than any other verb here.
HSK 1. The whole point of the episode.
HSK 1. Water on day one, butter tea on day two.
HSK 1. Why people drink what they drink here.
The one fact that organizes everything else in this episode.
The shape of the Barkhor road people walk around.
Salty, oily, and exactly what a cold high place calls for.
Everyone on the Barkhor walks the same one.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法verb + 得 + adverb
得 links a verb to how it is done.
在这里，人要走得很慢。
A 不 …，B 很 …
Contrasts two things by negating one and asserting the other.
北京不高，拉萨很高。
…，就 …
就 marks the second clause as the direct consequence of the first.
他说：他们走这条路，走完就好。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Free account
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