Stories, audio, and videos help you learn the Lanzhou dialect when you can follow what they mean. Material at that level is known as comprehensible input. Very little Lanzhou speech is written down for learners, so this guide pairs the one app that writes it with Standard Mandarin reading apps and places to hear people from Lanzhou.
Aim for roughly one new word in each sentence, as long as the story still makes sense to you. Short sentences full of familiar words suit beginners, and longer passages let advanced learners work out new words from context. If the meaning slips away, step down to something easier. For tutors and courses, see our Lanzhou dialect app comparison.
Custom Lessons Made for You
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Lanzhou dialect. You learn from Lanzhou dialect you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Bubblegum gives you Lanzhou speech at your level. Tell Poppy, your AI tutor, what you'd like to read about, and she writes the lesson in the words people in Lanzhou use. A Level 1 lesson might say 今个热得很 ("it's really hot today"), with 得很 after the word it makes stronger.
The trade-off is that Bubblegum can't open a video or post you found yourself. For Chinese you pick, Pleco and LingQ are the better fit.
- Read and listen to lessons, stories, and news written in Lanzhou speech.
- Each lesson fits your level and what you like.
- Tap a word to see what it means, and open a grammar card for local forms.
- Ask Poppy about any sentence while you read.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You cannot bring in your own books, videos, or articles.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
- Teaches Pinyin
- Traditional characters
- Zhuyin
Mobile
Read Standard Mandarin Stories at Your Level
These apps write Standard Mandarin for learners, not Lanzhou speech. They help most in your first months, while you learn the words that both share.
Du Chinese
Du Chinese adds new graded lessons every weekday, each with sentence translations and grammar notes. Bubblegum was partly inspired by it.
- Over 3,000 readings are sorted into six levels.
- Voice actors read each story.
- See the translation of each sentence.
- Flashcards
- Traditional characters
- Zhuyin
MobileWeb
The Chairman's Bao
If you like current events, The Chairman's Bao rewrites news stories as short lessons with a pop-up dictionary and grammar notes.
- News stories are written for learners at six levels.
- People record the audio.
- Flashcards
- Traditional characters
MobileWeb
Read Chinese You Choose
These apps help with Chinese you find yourself, such as a post from a Lanzhou account or a short story.
Pleco
Pleco's reader lets you paste in Chinese and tap a word to look it up. It gives Standard Mandarin meanings, so a local word may need a second check.
- Paste in any text and tap words to see what they mean.
- Look up a word by drawing it or pointing your camera at it.
- Flashcards
- Traditional characters
- Zhuyin
Mobile
LingQ
LingQ has its own Chinese library, and you can also import articles or videos. It works best once you have your own reading list in mind.
- Bring in books, videos, and articles you want to read.
- See which words you know and which are new.
- Flashcards
- Traditional characters
- No Zhuyin
MobileWeb
Hear People From Lanzhou
Most Lanzhou speech lives in conversation and video, so listening is where you meet it. In 2023, Lanzhou's 德艺坊 crosstalk troupe performed a routine in Lanzhou dialect on CCTV's Spring Festival crosstalk show, poking fun at get-rich-quick business pitches. Lanzhou Guzi, a traditional form of sung storytelling, is performed mainly in Lanzhou dialect.
For a short, clear recording, the International Dialects of English Archive has a speaker from Lanzhou reading the Analects in her dialect. On Douyin and Bilibili, search for 兰州话 to find comedy sketches and short videos made in Lanzhou. In the 2025 film Ne Zha 2, the groundhogs speak a mix of Gansu and Ningxia dialects from the same family as Lanzhou speech.
Other Apps We Looked At (5)
- maayotOne short Standard Mandarin lesson a day at your level, with a story and native audio.
- Read BeanReal articles and stories turned into graded Standard Mandarin readings from HSK 1 to 6.
- HelloChineseA Standard Mandarin course with more than 1,000 graded stories beside the lessons.
- MigakuTurn words from shows, web pages, and books into cards with the sentence, sound, and a picture.
- Language ReactorChinese subtitles beside a translation on Netflix and YouTube in Chrome, with pinyin over the words.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Lanzhou dialect app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Lanzhou dialect, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Du Chinese is the other option if you'd like short Standard Mandarin stories first, read aloud by voice actors.
Is the Lanzhou dialect written down?
Yes, with the same Simplified characters as Standard Mandarin, though spelling online varies. A 2018 picture guide from the Lanzhou city government writes the greeting 做啥呢 ("what are you up to?") as 组撒尼, the way it sounds, so look words up under their usual characters.
Does Lanzhou use the same tones as Standard Mandarin?
It has four tones too, but they sound different. Lanzhou's first tone falls from high to middle, while the Standard Mandarin first tone stays high and level, so listen to Lanzhou audio from the start.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- 兰州话 (Chinese Wikipedia): four tones, with the first tone at 53
- Lanzhou (Wikipedia): Lanzhou Guzi is performed mainly in the Lanzhou dialect
- 兰州发布 via 澎湃新闻《一起看图get兰州方言 系不攒劲！》(2018-09-12), with sound spellings such as 组撒尼
- 兰州晚报 via 中国甘肃网《在央视出圈的兰州方言值得挖掘》(2023-02-06)
- 中国甘肃网《甘肃方言大赏！快来get《哪吒2》同款方言》(2025-02-22)
- International Dialects of English Archive, Gansu 3: a speaker from Lanzhou reads the Analects in Lanzhou dialect
- Bubblegum
- Du Chinese
- The Chairman's Bao
- Pleco
- LingQ
Checked on October 14, 2026 against each app's own pages.
