你好Nǐ Hǎo, Shanghai Play
A pixel-art Mandarin adventure · HSK 1–4 你好，上海

Learn Mandarin by living in Shanghai

Ride the metro, talk your way through real situations, buy dumplings, find a lost friend — and pick up 550 words of Chinese along the way.

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Free · keyboard, touch or phone · every line voiced

Line 2 pulls into 人民广场 — all 30 stations are real

“师傅，请开慢一点儿！” — a taxi ride with a cake on board

The Bund lights up — Stage 3, after dark

Your friends text you — in Chinese, with pinyin

  • 550words from HSK 1–4
  • 65quests, big and small
  • 74metro stations to visit
  • 4stages, one trip

What is it?

A city to explore, a language to live in.

你好，上海 drops you into Shanghai with a phone, a metro card and a friend waiting at the Pearl Tower. Everything you do — buying a ticket, ordering lunch, asking the way — happens in Mandarin. You learn by doing, and the game keeps track of every word you meet.

逛
01 · Explore

Wander a living Shanghai

74 stations

Every stop is a place

Get off anywhere on Lines 1, 2, 8, 9, 10 and 11: lane houses in 老西门, a university campus, shopping streets, quiet villas — each with neighbours who tell you something true about it.

The metro

A metro you actually ride

Plan a route, tap in, find the right platform and listen for 下一站. Board in the wrong direction and you’ll hear about it: 坐反了！

Find your way

Ask, read, follow

Signs are in Chinese, locals give directions in Chinese, and 小李 texts you where to meet. Every map is a puzzle you solve with the language.

Day & night

From the Pearl Tower to the 118th floor

Neon on 南京东路, the Bund lit up at night, the view from the Shanghai Tower and a 300 km/h Maglev to the airport.

学
02 · Learn

Learn by talking to people

Tasks

Real situations, real Mandarin

Every key person starts a task — ordering a cake, renting a room, a taxi across town. Answer well to keep their patience up; hints are there when you need them.

Sentences

Build it word by word

Put tiles in order — 我 · 想 · 买 · 一件 · 衣服 — and get word order and the little words like 了 and 的 right.

Money

Count it out

Listen to the price, then pay with notes and coins: the wet market, a taxi meter, ¥300 for a birthday present — after a bit of 便宜一点儿.

Listening

Keep your ears open

Station announcements, prices and gate changes come in Mandarin only — every line is voiced, so you learn what Chinese really sounds like.

记
03 · Remember

Remember every word

Lexicon

Your phone keeps track

Every word you meet lands in your phone and grows from Discovered to Practiced to Mastered as you use it in tasks.

练 Trainer

Five ways to practise

Flashcards, meaning, reverse, listening and tones — short sessions between quests, with a daily streak.

Tones

Hear the difference

tài or tāi? Tone drills and spaced repetition bring each word back just before it would slip away.

Quests

Always know what’s next

65 quests across four HSK levels, grouped by person, with the next step written out — and side quests whenever you want a break.

Characters · 你的朋友们

Meet your people

Three people carry the story — and each one needs your Mandarin in a different way.

小李
丽丽
爷爷

小李Xiǎo Lǐ

Your Shanghainese friend

Basketball-mad, always late, and proud of his mum’s dumplings. He meets you at the Pearl Tower on day one — and twists his ankle right after.

东方明珠见！
Dōngfāng Míngzhū jiàn!
See you at the Pearl Tower!
  • Walk him home
  • Lunch in 新天地
  • Hoops in 复兴公园
  • His lost phone
  • Birthday surprise

丽丽Lìli

Your friend from France, new in town

She lands at Pudong with a yellow backpack and big plans — and gets lost about as often as you do. Her Chinese grows alongside yours.

上海太大了！
Shànghǎi tài dà le!
Shanghai is so big!
  • Airport pickup
  • Lost at the library
  • A present for 小李
  • Rent a room

爷爷Yéye

Your grandpa · 老西门, Lane 108, No. 5

Tea, a singing bird called 小黄 and sixty years of stories about old Shanghai. He’s teaching you to cook — you’re teaching him to use his phone.

再喝一杯茶吧！
Zài hē yì bēi chá ba!
Have another cup of tea!
  • Stories of old Shanghai
  • Medicine for 爷爷
  • Market day
  • The 1960 photo
  • A last breakfast

Four stages · one trip

From your first ticket to your flight home

  1. 1HSK 1

    First day

    A Line 2 ticket, 小李 at the Pearl Tower, dinner with his family and 丽丽 at the airport.

  2. 2HSK 2

    Settling in

    Directions, lunch, basketball — a lost friend, a sick grandpa and a birthday to plan.

  3. 3HSK 3

    A day of problems

    Transfers, soup dumplings, a lost phone on the Bund and 爷爷’s photo from 1960.

  4. 4HSK 4

    The last day

    The 118th floor, the Maglev, a gate change in Mandarin only — and goodbye.

准备好了吗？

Your first day in Shanghai starts at 人民广场.

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