If you have time, add Suzhou to the trip to Hangzhou, and could do a Pearl River Delta trip after Guangzhou, take the train down to Shenzen, subway down to HK border, ferry over to Macau, although that would eat up several days.
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As of today (February 07, 2026)
Character Progression
2026-02-07
| Unskipped | Skipped | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learned | 1,367 | 90 | 1,457 |
| Non-learned | - | 917 | - |
| Total | - | 1007 | - |
My HH learning total: 2,374 characters ([learned] union [skipped])
| Level | Learned | Out Of |
|---|---|---|
| HSK 1 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 2 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 3 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 4 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 5 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 6 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 7-9 | 546 | 1200 |
| Non-HSK | 28 | 229 |
This table includes all of the ones I’ve skipped.
Learning
HelloTalk
I’m beginning to make a larger effort to force myself to speak more on HelloTalk. Granted, I only just finally replied to a voice message from over a year ago, and the guy was nice enough to not mind and still reply welcomingly.
I think I’ve talked about this before, but as a working adult, especially in the US (unless you’re in NYC or Chicago), it gets harder and harder to casually just make friends here and there. It’s not really a time issue as it is an energy issue.
HSK
I’ve slowed down a little bit in my progress, so this is more of a self-reminder to get on it lol.
iTalki
I have a “favorite” teacher on iTalki. She’s great, and we’ve been having lessons together for about 3 years now(?) Because she’s great, however, her calendar is SUPER booked!!! I ended up buying two 10-lesson packages with her, just so I could schedule a few months in advance.
The hard thing about classes is that it’s hard to feel like you’re making progress unless you’re taking classes regularly. Of course, since iTalki is a paid platform (understandably), the money adds up.
TokiMonki: thoughts??
There’s this guy I’ve followed on Instagram for a little while, and I think he has some great, bite-sized videos of natural/authentic Chinese phrases or points. He founded a site called TokiMonki which is supposed to pair serious Chinese learners with serious English learners, and essentially you’re provided a topic, video, article, etc. and there are different modes to practice on: summarizing the text, discussing your thoughts, asking questions, practicing reading out loud, etc.
It seems like a great idea since I think a lot of language exchange “partners” might struggle to focus on the learning aspect (if that’s what they’re looking for).
Once again, however, it’s a paid platform. There is a free tier! I might give it a shot. I was just curious if anyone else has tried it out.
China Trip
Thank you, these sound like great ideas! I have a pretty packed itinerary for my trip already, but I’ll definitely note it for future travel. I have a notebook where I’m noting things in lists and maps. On rednote, I also have a China travel collection lol.
As of today (March 09, 2026)
Character Progression
2026-03-09
| Unskipped | Skipped | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learned | 1,373 | 96 | 1,469 |
| Non-learned | - | 921 | - |
| Total | - | 1017 | - |
My HH learning total: 2,390 characters ([learned] union [skipped])
Back in Consolidation Mode
I haven’t really learned much more since about a month ago. I’ve been feeling more easily exhausted lately. While I’m still going to work toward the HSK this year, I’m not sure if I’m going to end up taking it in 2026. Primarily because, while there is a clear curriculum for the HSK 5, I’m not proactive enough to study off of just the curriculum docs provided by the HSK department, and I have no idea when actually learning materials will be released. That, in combination with just needing more time to actually practice verbally, I don’t think I’d be ready within this year (unless I were able to practice diligently for 30+ minutes >=4 days a week).
China Trip
I realize I haven’t actually specified the dates for this trip with you all! And against the safety concerns running in my head, I’ll share them with you regardless lol
- Beijing Apr 5 - Apr 10 + Apr 12 - Apr 15
- with a side trip to Datong Apr 10 - Apr 12
- This whole Beijing + Datong segment is with a close friend of 6 years.
- Shanghai Apr 15 - Apr 21
with a side trip to HangzhouI was going to go to Hangzhou for literally only one day (take the bullet train in the morning and take a bullet train back the same day), but I already have 4 cities planned for this trip, and it’d be kind of a hassle to go for just one day, and not be able to explore too much. I’ll save it for a future trip.- I have at least 2 friends I could meet while I’m in
Shanghai. I think I’ll for sure meet one at least once, and he says he has other friends we could hang out with, but the other friend, idk lol
- Guangzhou Apr 21 - Apr 26
- no side trip
- I have 4 people I could meet! My iTalki teacher, two friends from HelloTalk, and a friend from college
HelloTalk
I’ve actually finally been using HelloTalk more! I’m trying to get more voice messages in, but baby steps.
It’s just a bit hard because of the time difference. Daylight savings aside, being in California has you in a 15- or 16-hour time difference with China at any point in the year. I usually calculate it “backwards” because it’s easier to subtract 8 or 9 hours rather than add 15 or 16 lol. But still, you can imagine, I’m getting ready for dinner and my friends are just waking up to go to work. Or, they’re about to go to sleep or are already asleep, and I’m barely waking up for my day. So, it’s harder to maintain convos with adults this way since people are not as likely to message during work (understandably). Also in the evenings (here) is probably the most active time for messaging, but I’m with my boyfriend so it’s awkward for me to be on my phone when I’m spending time with him. Just bad timing overall lol.
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lol i just wrote up that you should visit more of the yangtze and pearl river deltas then realized i had given the same advice a month ago and you declined… sorry newborn, zero memory.
which is contributing to my backlog in hanzihero…
anyway trip sounds great and you sound super prepared both itinerary and language-wise.
1 Like
As of today (March 13, 2026)
Character Progression
2026-03-13
| Unskipped | Skipped | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learned | 1,397 | 98 | 1,495 |
| Non-learned | - | 922 | - |
| Total | - | 1020 | - |
My HH learning total: 2,417 characters ([learned] union [skipped])
lol I still appreciate the thought! and thank you
As of today (March 17, 2026)
Character Progression
2026-03-17
| Unskipped | Skipped | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learned | 1,417 | 98 | 1,515 |
| Non-learned | - | 923 | - |
| Total | - | 1,021 | - |
My HH learning total: 2,438 characters ([learned] union [skipped])
| Level | Learned | Out Of |
|---|---|---|
| HSK 1 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 2 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 3 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 4 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 5 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 6 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 7-9 | 610 | 1200 |
| Non-HSK | 28 | 229 |
This table includes all of the ones I’ve skipped.
I have 791 characters to go (at the moment!)
No updates, which means it’s time for me to get back on it!
3 Likes
As of today (April 01, 2026)
Character Progression
2026-04-01
| Unskipped | Skipped | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learned | 1,426 | 99 | 1,525 |
| Non-learned | - | 923 | - |
| Total | - | 1,022 | - |
My HH learning total: 2,448 characters ([learned] union [skipped])
| Level | Learned | Out Of |
|---|---|---|
| HSK 1 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 2 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 3 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 4 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 5 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 6 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 7-9 | 620 | 1200 |
| Non-HSK | 28 | 229 |
This table includes all of the ones I’ve skipped.
Life Update
I’m getting married!!!
April fools (haha). I’m not getting married. However, my boyfriend is moving back to China because the situation in the US is astronomically bad and just plummeting endlessly.
With that said, I’ll be starting a long journey of trying to immigrate to China with him, which is all the more reason to crack down on my Chinese.
I feel like I’ve been “diligent” about learning and practicing, but in truth, once he’s gone, I’ll be able to practice like.. 2x-3x more than I currently am lol. Hopefully not to the point of burnout, but because I really won’t have much else to do outside of work. Of course I have hobbies, but most of my friends have moved away anyway.
China Trip
I’m going this Saturday! Time zones are so fun (sarcasm) because I’m leaving LAX on Saturday at noon (12:00) and I arrive in Shanghai at 17:00 (5:00pm) Sunday lol. Then I have a layover, and another flight to Beijing, where I’ll be arriving at 23:50 (11:50pm) Sunday. Essentially, one whole weekend: gone. Not a big deal tbh since I’ll be there for 3 weeks.
HEADS UP If you’re planning on going to China
Things I have learned so far
The competition to get a ticket to the China National Museum 中国国家博物馆 is FIERCE. Online ticket window opens at 17:00 (5:00pm) in China for 7 days later. It is like trying to get Taylor Swift tickets!!! The website slows down, even crashes, and you don’t even get the slot you want within 10 minutes of the window opening. Mind you, 17:00 in China is 2:00 (2:00am) in California. So, I was literally doing this exhausted, right before bed.
The Forbidden City 故宫 can only be reserved within 7 days (like the ntnl museum), but foreigners can go directly to the gate on any day without a reservation and get in for free!
The Phone Number Problem
Getting train tickets on 携程 or Trip.com isn’t too hard, but you should have your ID and everything set up in advance. 12306 is sort of dysfunctional if you don’t have a Chinese phone number. Again, you can use Trip.com.
Using the reserve in advance booking feature in 携程 is not very promising, though it claims to be. It’s a lot less likely to work if you don’t link your 12306, which, again, may be an issue if you don’t have a Chinese phone number. Just know that ticket windows for trains open within 14 days of the departure date, typically around 12:45 (pm) China time.
Some other events like dinner-theater may require a Chinese phone number if they don’t offer an international website.
BE WARNED
Essentially, a lot of stuff requires a Chinese phone number. While you can get an eSim for data before you go to China, you can also get a physical sim when you land in China. The problem is that, there’s no eSim that comes with a phone number for texting and calling, only for data. The physical sim in China can provide calling and texting. If you’re from the US like me, you know that a lot of smartphones nowadays don’t have a sim tray anymore!!! Luckily, I still have an iPhone 12 pro max that has a sim tray and the phone is fully functional. I’ve reset it to use it as an iPod, and will be adding a physical sim card once I arrive in Shanghai.
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Yeah the trains are awesome but booking can be a huge pain.
Last year when I went with my wife and 2 son’s we booked 4 tickets using the Railway 12306 app from Australia - I didn’t need a CH phone number, just my (and my families) Aus passports. 2 adults 2 kids. We had flights/hotels were all booked months in advance then just had to wait until 2 weeks out before trying to get tickets to make the holiday actually work!!! Was laggy as hell, but we eventually booked our 4 tickets … only to find out after that each of the seats was in a completely different row of the train (you don’t get to pick lol). My wife freaked out as she didn’t want to leave our 7 and 10 year olds sitting next to complete strangers for 6 hours straight. Luckily everyone actually on the train was exceptionally nice and swapped seats with me so my kids never actually had to sit alone, but my HSK4 level mandarin was really put to the test that day!
Outside stressing about tickets, I loved the train though - we went from Guangzhou to JiangJiaJie. I think it was ~6 hours all up, but comfy the whole way and the scenery was fantastic! One of the highlights of the trip.
Another thing we did before leaving was get both WeChat pay and AliPay setup before leaving - took a few days of sending in every increasingly invasive levels of ID to the Chinese government. Def wouldn’t have been easy to do once there, but wasn’t that bad when at home with all the documents handy. I’m sure you’re all over it, but for anyone else reading I def recommend getting those setup - most places don’t even accept cash any more so really hard to get by without them.
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As of today (June 03, 2026)
Character Progression 汉字学习进度
2026-06-03
| Level | Learned | Out Of | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| HSK 1 | 300 | 300 | - |
| HSK 2 | 300 | 300 | - |
| HSK 3 | 300 | 300 | - |
| HSK 4 | 300 | 300 | - |
| HSK 5 | 300 | 300 | - |
| HSK 6 | 300 | 300 | - |
| HSK 7-9 | 653 | 1200 | +33 |
| Non-HSK | 28 | 229 | - |
This table includes all of the ones I’ve skipped.
Preamble 导语
Long time no see! I do keep up this log for myself, but I also enjoy the fact that some of you actually read this and reply sometimes.
Life Update 生活的消息
Good news: I’m getting married!!! FOR REAL THIS TIME!
Bad news: he’s moving back to China literally at the end of June, so we’ll be long distance for the foreseeable future.
If you don’t live in the US, the situation right now is as follows: if you’re not already 1) a green card holder or a citizen AND 2) at least 4 years in your career at this point, it’s extremely hard if not impossible to find a job right now. My boyfriend is unfortunately just a job-visa holder and unfortunately we didn’t get married like a year ago, but it’s not paying off for him to stay at the moment. So, I actually was the one to encourage him to move back to China since his resume would actually be far more competitive than most peoples’ back there. There’s actually a very high chance of him getting a good job in China right now despite the fact that it’s a “bad job market” over there.
China Trip 中国之旅
China was absolutely amazing. I was there for 3 weeks in April.
Beijing → DaTong (Shanxi) → Beijing → Shanghai → Guangzhou (+ Hong Kong for one day)
Favorite parts:
- Beijing 北京
- Forbidden City 紫禁城 (or 故宮)
- Shanghai 上海
- All of the coffee places
- Yu Garden 豫园
- The Bund 外滩
- DaTong 大同
- Yungang Grottos 云冈石窟
- The kind “revived” ancient city
- Guangzhou 广州
- Chaoshan hotpot 潮汕火锅 at 潮发
- The (relatively) relaxed vibe of the city
- Hong Kong 香港
- Admittedly, I was alone for this whole day, and it was a million degrees outside, so it was a little hard to enjoy. The food was good, and the city views were cool, hidden pockets of gardens/parks were interesting. It definitely would’ve been a lot more fun had I not been alone.
21 days is a little hard to fit into this post, but the overall trip was just amazing. Out of the 40+ meals that I had, I probably only had like one (1) or two (2) bad meals, which means at least 38 amazing meals.
I was only alone for ONE day out of this entire trip. I didn’t go with my boyfriend, but I had friends to see almost every single day of this trip.
Beijing + DaTong
I was with a close friend for my entire time in Beijing and DaTong. I could NOT understand the Beijing accent for my life. There was one time that I went to a (high-end) clothing store, and they spoke very standard Mandarin. So, it was really easy to talk with them. However, when I went to a spa, I got a massage and I literally could not understand most of the people working in there 
it’s rough.
Shanghai
Then, in Shanghai, I was with someone who I’d met only once or twice like 5 years ago, but he basically acted as my tour guide and private photography the entire 5 ish days that I was there, minus like one day where I met a friend from uni. I didn’t get to use Mandarin as much since most people working in service in Shanghai speak English very well and they just default to English when they see foreigners. One day, my (local) friend took me to try a foot massage, and the two ladies who helped us didn’t speak English, so we talked with them in Mandarin the whole time. They had non-local accents for sure, but it was still easy to talk with them luckily.
Guangzhou
In Guangzhou I met a (local) friend from uni, two friends from HelloTalk, and super randomly, an old friend (foreigner) I hadn’t seen since MIDDLE SCHOOL (13-14 years ago). I got to use Mandarin quite a bit in Guangzhou which was nice. The Cantonese accents are pretty varying from person to person lol. One of my friends from HelloTalk has a heavy Cantonese accent when he speaks Mandarin. He and I actually would message each other in Cantonese, but my spoken Cantonese is awful. So, we just spoke in Mandarin and English.
Hong Kong
I was going to meet my Chinese teacher in Guangzhou as well. I’d confirmed with her twice in advance about meeting, and then literally 2 days before meeting, she bailed on me 
I’m not gonna hold it against her, but it’s just a little lame since I’d already planned for it 6 weeks in advance and confirmed more than once leading up to it. However, since she bailed on me, that’s how I decided to go to Hong Kong for one day. My friend from uni couldn’t go with me because her pass or something expired(?). And, I do have a (local) friend in Hong Kong, but he’s doing a master’s program so he was too busy. Plus, we met on HelloTalk, so not much of a big deal to miss this opportunity. Hence, I went alone lol. In Hong Kong, I got to use like 3-4 sentences of Cantonese for the day lmao. The youth there speak English surprisingly well. I know that Hong Kong has a very strong tie with its British history, but the adults and elderly don’t speak English very well, whereas the youth speak it astonishingly well. Huge difference.
Work, Travel, and Chinese 工作、旅行与中文
Work
I studied data science for my bachelors and masters, but the job I’ve been working has been tangent to it, and not directly related. Lately, I’ve been in the middle of an insanely slow interview process for a classical data science role - classical in that it’s more research statistics and non-GPT ML modeling and analytics. The problem is that it’s a senior role and I don’t have recent direct experience. First round interview went well regardless, and I am likely going to round two. We’ll see.
Travel
With my boyfriend getting ready to go back to China, we’ve been going down his farewell checklist of things he wants to do. We’ve gone to Orlando, Florida for Disney World and Universal Studios, we went to Hawaii last weekend, we went to San Diego for a day. This weekend we’re going to Palm Springs, California, and the following weekend we’re going to Sequoia for a day, and the weekend after that we’re going to Catalina island for a day. It’s an extremely ambitious travel plan, but we’ve been keeping up well lol.
Chinese
Given work and travel, I haven’t been very diligent with my Chinese these days. I love the new “leeches” feature, but now my progress table would get more complicated. So, I’m just sticking to the HSK categories chart for now as I don’t have the energy to expand it yet
My reviews on here have gotten down to about 30-50 per day after about 2-3 months of consolidation. So, after a long hiatus of learning new items, I’ve ramped back up to 40 new items per day (not counting dictionary). Let’s see how long I’ll keep it up.
I’ve been wanting to read more, but I just can’t get myself to do it. I know that I should just be doing a little bit every day to maintain progress, but I’m tired(!!!) I wish I could say I was stronger, but I’m not
HSK
I’m a little pressed that the new HSK 3.0 is fully live next month but they haven’t released their personally sponsored HSK 4, 5, or 6 textbooks. Idk if they’re just guinea pigging the first three textbooks to see if they need to adjust 4-6, but I haven’t been studying for HSK as a result.
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Congratulations on getting married. My marriage has been the greatest blessing for me. Nothing else comes close. I hope it will be the same for you and your future husband. Long-distance isn’t ideal in the long run. Are you still planning to move to China?
Your trip to China sounded very exciting. Was it that hot only in Hong Kong or was it bad in other places as well? I would like to eat superb Chinese meals with my wife but neither of us can bear hot weather…
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Hiii, congratulations on your marriage! I wish you and your partner all the best 
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Really interesting log! Congratulations on your marriage!
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Congrats on the marriage!!
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