What HSK Levels Does The Chairman's Bao Cover?

Updated

The Chairman's Bao grades its lessons across six levels, Level 1 through Level 6, which map to HSK levels. That means a beginner working toward HSK 1 and an advanced learner pushing past HSK 6 can both find material pitched at their range. The site lets you browse or filter lessons by level, and sample lessons at each level are available for free, so you can check the difficulty against your own reading ability before committing.

How the Level System Works

Every lesson on the platform is tagged with one of six levels. The site's lesson browser shows "All Levels" alongside Level 1 through Level 6 as selectable filters, so the grading is built into how content is organized rather than being a rough label.

Level Typical learner stage
Level 1 Beginner, building first characters and simple sentences
Level 2 Elementary, handling short straightforward texts
Level 3 Intermediate, reading longer passages with common vocabulary
Level 4 Upper-intermediate, working with more complex structures
Level 5 Advanced, reading authentic news-style writing
Level 6 Near-native reading, dense or idiomatic material

The exact vocabulary and grammar load at each level isn't spelled out in the site's public description, so treat the table as a general orientation rather than a precise syllabus. The reliable way to place yourself is to open a sample lesson at a given level and read it.

Why the Levels Are Tied to News Content

The lessons are built on authentic news articles rather than textbook dialogues, and new articles are added daily. Because the same real-world source material is rewritten and graded across six levels, a story can appear at a difficulty that suits you regardless of where you sit on the HSK scale. The site describes itself as a news-based graded reader, which is the mechanism behind the leveling: the topic stays current, the language is adjusted.

Checking Your Level Before You Commit

The most practical step is to test yourself against the free samples. The lesson list includes items marked "Sample" at multiple levels, for example:

  • Level 1 — "Chinese Fruit Seller Feeds Durians to Sheep" (tagged Animals, Funny, Sample)
  • Level 2 — "Woman Attends Wedding Only to Find Out She's the Bride" (tagged Funny, Sample, Society, Timeless News)
  • Level 3 — "Chinese Startup Unveils Pet Translator with '95% Accuracy'" (tagged Animals, Sample, Technology, Timeless News)

Read one at the level you think matches you, then try the level above. If you can follow the text with only occasional dictionary lookups, that's your working level. The one-tap dictionary and flashcard saving make it easy to gauge how much unknown vocabulary a lesson throws at you.

Who the Levels Are Built For

The platform states its content serves both students and teachers of Mandarin Chinese, and it runs across website, iOS, and Android apps, so you can study on desktop, laptop, mobile, or tablet. If you're a teacher, the graded levels let you assign reading at the right difficulty for a mixed-ability class.

What to Keep in Mind

  • The six levels correspond to HSK levels, but the site's public description doesn't publish a detailed per-level vocabulary list, so verify fit with a sample.
  • Sample lessons are free; full access to the broader lesson library involves a premium tier, with student plans listed on the site's plans page.
  • Level tags are the fastest filter, but topics (animals, technology, society, and so on) also help you pick something you'll actually want to read.