When early cartographers decorated their Oriental maps with dragons, we believe they were alluding to the brutal, remorseless and savage beast known as the HSK: many are the unwitting travelers who have fallen into its quick jaws, and many more are those who struck out against it only to find their wits stripped in the carnage that followed.

Fortunately, though China be the land of adventure and dragons, our HSK tests are the digital equivalent of Google Maps. Not only will we see you through the fray, but we'll let you do it from comfort of home, dressed in nothing more than your underwear. In that sense, we're even an improvement on the real thing, since official exam centers still frown on naked test takers.