Interesting Mandarin webpages

simonpettersson
February 04, 2010, 06:48 PM posted in General Discussion

I need some tips. I want to practice my reading on Mandarin websites, but it's hard to come up with good and interesting texts to read. What are some good Mandarin websites you have come across? Since I'm new to the Mandarin World Wide Web, I don't know what's good out there. News are easy to find but boring to read, as are social forums and the like where people talk about nothing at all. But interesting and well-made websites with good stuff that's not too formal, where can I find that?

Don't worry if it seems to niched; I'm sure someone will have great use for your favorite website on ancient sail weaving techniques. Just tell me about your favorite websites!

Profile picture
pretzellogic
February 04, 2010, 07:16 PM

These are very niche. I would also not call them my favorite websites. They have the advantage of having english counterparts, so I can see how badly I do in trying to translate what is on the website.

http://www.cnw.com.cn/

http://www.vmware.com/cn/?

http://welcome.hp.com/country/cn/zh/welcome.html#Product

http://www.ibm.com.cn/

Profile picture
simonpettersson
February 05, 2010, 07:20 AM

I'll provide some life support for this thread by adding one of my own favorite webpages: Boardgame China (BGC). A great page for any board game enthusiast. Since board gaming in China is exactly the same as board gaming anywhere else (that is, everyone is playing translated German boardgames), anyone familiar with the board game scene will feel right at home amongst discussions on Carcassonne (卡卡送) and Settlers of Catan (卡坦岛). What's more, it can be used (as I plan to use it) to find people to play board games with. A great social activity that will surely make for amazing Mandarin practice. I'm usually more of a roleplaying gamer than a board gamer, but roleplaying games in China are severly underdeveloped and scarce and my Chinese isn't good enough yet, anyway.

Profile picture
changye
February 05, 2010, 07:37 AM

Hi simon

I love reading news articles, mainly crime news in the PRC. I think they are not boring, on the contrary, they are just exciting. As you know, fact is stranger than fiction, specially in China, hehe. Joking aside, why don't you read websites/articles relating to your hobbies and interests. In my case, I enjoy reading archaeology/astronomy news every day.

Profile picture
simonpettersson

Do share some good links for archaeology and astronomy if you have them! And news, too. I'm not very interested (fact may be stranger than fiction, but it's rarely as well-written), but others might be.

As for reading about my hobbies, my principal hobbies are martial arts and roleplaying games. With martial arts, most that is written in any language is uninteresting, bullsh*t (qi powers!) or both. It's in the doing, not the talking, so I rarely read about it in any language. With roleplaying games, China is far behind the West and what is played is only the big mainstream games like Dungeons & Dragons. I play small, experimental "story games" focused on narrative and communal storytelling, and this simply doesn't exist in China, as far as I've seen (it's a subculture of a subculture, so it's pretty rare here, too).

Other, more academic interests will likely have a lot of formal language, which is not what I need right now. I need a lot of common, informal language, and that's not likely to be found in articles on philosophy, for example.

Profile picture
changye

Here is the link to 新浪科技.

http://tech.sina.com.cn/discovery/

Profile picture
simonpettersson

Thank you for that link, Changye. It looks like there's a lot of interesting stuff there! I can see myself spending a lot of time at that site.

Profile picture
simonpettersson
February 05, 2010, 08:28 AM

Do share some good links for archaeology and astronomy if you have them! And news, too. I'm not very interested (fact may be stranger than fiction, but it's rarely as well-written), but others might be.

As for reading about my hobbies, my principal hobbies are martial arts and roleplaying games. With martial arts, most that is written in any language is uninteresting, bullsh*t (qi powers!) or both. It's in the doing, not the talking, so I rarely read about it in any language. With roleplaying games, China is far behind the West and what is played is only the big mainstream games like Dungeons & Dragons. I play small, experimental "story games" focused on narrative and communal storytelling, and this simply doesn't exist in China, as far as I've seen (it's a subculture of a subculture, so it's pretty rare here, too).

Other, more academic interests will likely have a lot of formal language, which is not what I need right now. I need a lot of common, informal language, and that's not likely to be found in articles on philosophy, for example.

Profile picture
mattahmet
February 05, 2010, 08:41 AM

Here is a list of links to some of my favorite sites: http://www.lingualism.com/chinese.html#reading

Profile picture
simonpettersson

Good collection! All of those are learning resources, though, right? Aimed at learners? I was talking about Chinese websites aimed at the Chinese. Native resources and all that. But that really is a good link collection.

Profile picture
changye
February 05, 2010, 08:43 AM

Here is the link to 新浪科技.

http://tech.sina.com.cn/discovery/

Profile picture
simonpettersson
February 05, 2010, 08:53 AM

Good collection! All of those are learning resources, though, right? Aimed at learners? I was talking about Chinese websites aimed at the Chinese. Native resources and all that. But that really is a good link collection.

Profile picture
sydcarten
February 05, 2010, 09:26 AM

I've found this website to be useful too:

http://www.mandarintools.com/

Profile picture
sydcarten
February 05, 2010, 09:38 AM

http://www.mandarintools.com/

Profile picture
simonpettersson

It seems there should be a thread for websites with learning materials and resources. Do start one.

Again, this thread is about pages by Chinese, for Chinese, in Chinese.

Profile picture
simonpettersson
February 05, 2010, 11:43 AM

It seems there should be a thread for websites with learning materials and resources. Do start one.

Again, this thread is about pages by Chinese, for Chinese, in Chinese.