Chinese Stroke Order

Learn to write all 178 HSK 1 characters – animated stroke order, step-by-step diagrams and handwriting practice.

HSK 1 Characters

Basic Rules of Chinese Stroke Order

Most Chinese characters follow a small set of rules. Learning them makes new characters much easier to write and remember.

  1. Top before bottom – 三 is written from the top stroke down.
  2. Left before right – in 你, the left part 亻 comes before the right part.
  3. Horizontal before vertical – 十 starts with the horizontal stroke.
  4. Left-falling before right-falling – 人 starts with the stroke falling to the left.
  5. Outside before inside, close the frame last – in 回, the outer box is written first and closed at the end.
  6. Middle before the sides – 小 starts with the middle vertical stroke.

Practice writing Chinese characters every day

DracoChinese guides you through stroke order, pronunciation and vocabulary – with handwriting practice and gamified missions.

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Stroke data from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License, LGPL), animation by Hanzi Writer.