<h3>The Basics</h3>
My name is: <strong>Kendra Schaefer <a href="http://www.kendraschaefer.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">(My personal site)</a></strong>
Email me at: me@kendraschaefer.com
I live in: <strong>Beijing</strong>
Age: <strong>37</strong> 
In China since: <strong>2002</strong>
My day job: <a href="http://www.triviumchina.com">Tech research</a>

<h3>The Backstory</h3>
I got my BA in Mandarin at a university in Beijing, and though I've been out of school for a while, reading Chinese is one of the few things I never get bored of, probably because no matter how long I study, there's always more to learn. 

But when I was just starting out, I found that tracking down reading materials was the most difficult and frustrating part of the process. I wanted something challenging, but not so challenging I couldn't finish it. 
Everything I picked up tended to be too long, too short, too easy, or too hard, and I ended up spending more time looking for something that was suitable than actually doing any reading. Even more annoying, I'd often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn't decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside. As someone who organizes her thoughts in a series of domain names, it was inevitable I'd eventually start a website to solve that problem, and here you are. I post whenever I get a chance. 

<h4>How I Classify Reading Levels</h4>
Nothing on this site is truly beginner reading. If you just picked up Chinese yesterday, or if you're at HSK 1 or 2, even the beginner stuff is going to be a rough ride for you - I only have found a couple of pieces that HSK 1-2 might be able to tackle. This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually has to have some higher-level grammar or vocabulary mixed in. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialogs (你好! 你好吗? 我很好!) as opposed to actual stories. And the truth is, truly fluent native readers read at well above HSK 6. So, I don't entirely classify on the basis of your current vocabulary, and I don't classify by HSK level. But, as a general guideline, on this site:

Beginner: HSK 2-4
Intermediate: HSK 5-6
Advanced: HSK 6+

However, these pieces are supposed to be a challenge. And, in the real world, many pieces of writing are mixed-level; the first few paragraphs might be intermediate, with an advanced paragraph thrown in. So, I try to put texts into the lowest level at which someone, with a little work, might be able to figure the text out. So if, for example, you're at HSK 4, there are some pieces in the intermediate section you should be able to get through with some work. And if you can't figure something out, post in the comments. I'll try to answer you.

<h4>About the Translations</h4>
Most (but not all) of the translations on this site are done by me. I am not a linguist, and I translate for readability, and with an eye towards helping someone match the English to the Chinese. I don't post anything unless I've checked it several times, but that doesn't mean I haven't made a mistake. Do feel free to comment if you see anything that ought to have a better translation - it won't be taken amiss. 

<h4>How did you do those pop-up Chinese hover effects?</h4>
Thanks to Alex, the coder behind <a href="http://mandarinspot.com/">Mandarinspot.com</a>, Chinese Reading Practice now has pop-up translation on Chinese texts - hover over any mandarin word in the reading text to see the definition. If you'd like to implement something similar on your own blog, you can head over there and grab his Javascript file / annotations API. 

<h4>Commenting rules</h4>
I try to maintain a pleasant learning environment, so abusive, pointless, insulting, or unhelpful comments will be deleted. Sorry. I don't always manage to catch all the spam that slips through, though, so apologies if there's some clutter.

Enjoy, and good luck with your studies.