Chinesia Terms of Service

Before using our services, please read these terms in full and carefully, in particular the clauses printed in bold, which concern exclusions and limitations of our liability, limitations of your rights, dispute resolution and governing law.

If you are under 18, or below the age of majority where you live, please read these terms together with a parent or guardian and use our services only with their consent.

By clicking "Agree" or "Register", or by downloading, installing, registering for, signing in to or otherwise continuing to use our services, you confirm that you have read, understood and accepted these terms in full. If you do not agree with any part of them, please stop registering and using the services immediately.

This agreement is entered into between you and Shenzhen Zhangyuxuandong Information Technology Ltd. ("we", "us" or "Chinesia").

It applies to the services we provide in any product form, including the Chinesia official website (www.chinesia.com.cn), the Chinesia mobile application (iOS and Android), H5 pages, mini programs and embedded web views, and features such as the HSK computer-based mock test, learning reports, courses and vocabulary practice.

This agreement comprises these terms, the Privacy Policy, and the policies, rules, statements, notices and instructions we have published or may publish (together, the "Rules"). The Rules form an integral part of this agreement and have the same legal effect.

This agreement takes effect when you first accept it and remains in force until your account is deleted or the agreement is terminated in accordance with its terms. Translations are provided for convenience only; if the versions differ in meaning, the Simplified Chinese version prevails, unless mandatory law where you live provides otherwise.

• You can register and sign in with a mobile number or email address and a verification code, or with a third-party account such as Apple, Google, Facebook, LINE, Kakao, Naver, WeChat or QQ. If you use a third-party account, you authorise us to receive the information you agree to share from it and to link that account with your Chinesia account.
• You must provide true, accurate and complete registration details and keep them up to date.
• Chinesia accounts belong to us; on registration you obtain the right to use an account. You may not give away, lend, transfer, rent, sell or otherwise allow anyone else to use your account without our written consent.
• Keep your account, password and verification codes secure and do not disclose them. Any activity carried out through your account is treated as your own and is your responsibility, except where it is caused by a fault in our systems.
• Tell us immediately if your account is compromised or you notice any other security issue. We will take the necessary steps once we have verified the situation, but to the extent permitted by law we are not liable for losses arising before we are notified.
• You may delete your account at any time. Deletion is irreversible: your learning records, reports, unused virtual entitlements and paid benefits will all be removed. Please back up anything you need and consider carefully first.

Our services include, without limitation, Chinese courses and vocabulary practice, exercises and assessments, HSK computer-based mock tests and learning reports, learning statistics, and other features we release from time to time. What is actually made available governs.

• Services are divided into free and paid parts. For paid parts we clearly show the price and what is included before you use them, and they are activated only after you confirm that you are willing to pay. If you decline, we may withhold the paid service.
• You are responsible for the devices (phone, computer and so on) and communication costs (data and internet charges) needed to use our services.
• Our course content, question banks and mock papers are study aids. Unless expressly stated otherwise, we are not affiliated with or endorsed by the official bodies that administer the HSK or any other examination. We make no promise or guarantee as to your learning outcomes, examination scores or whether you will pass.
• The services are for your personal, non-commercial study only. Without our written permission you may not use the services or their content for resale, rental, advertising, training, surveys or any other commercial purpose.

• Prices and payment — the price, duration and scope of paid services are as shown on the purchase page. You can pay through Apple In-App Purchase, Google Play Billing, WeChat Pay, Alipay, PayPal and other channels offered in the product. Payment is completed by third-party payment providers; we do not receive or store your full card number, expiry date, security code or payment password.
• Auto-renewal — for auto-renewing subscriptions, unless you turn off auto-renewal at least 24 hours before the current period ends, you will be charged automatically for the next period. Subscriptions bought through Apple or Google are managed and cancelled in your account settings on that platform; subscriptions bought directly in our product are managed as described in the product or by contacting us.
• Refunds — purchases made through Apple, Google or another app store are refunded under that store's rules and processes. For purchases made directly from us, you may request a refund under applicable law and this agreement. If the law where you live gives you a statutory right of withdrawal or cooling-off period (for example the 14-day right of withdrawal for distance contracts in the EU), that right is not affected by this agreement. Where you have expressly asked us to begin supplying digital content during the cooling-off period and acknowledged the resulting loss of that right, those arrangements apply.
• Virtual entitlements — study time, redemption codes, mock test credits and similar entitlements can be used only within our services and according to the applicable rules. They cannot be exchanged for cash, transferred or traded, unless the law provides otherwise.
• Price changes — we may change the price of paid services. Changes do not affect a period you have already paid for. For auto-renewing subscriptions we will give you reasonable advance notice before the next charge, and you may turn off auto-renewal.

You agree to comply with the laws of your country or region and with this agreement when using our services, and not to publish, transmit or otherwise make available content that:

• breaks the law, endangers national security or the public interest, incites hatred or discrimination, or undermines ethnic unity or religious policy;
• spreads rumours or disrupts public order, or contains obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, terrorism or incitement to crime;
• insults or defames others, or infringes their reputation, privacy, likeness, intellectual property or other lawful rights;
• is false, harmful, threatening, harassing, vulgar, obscene or otherwise objectionable;
• is restricted or prohibited by applicable laws, regulations or standards.

You also agree not to:

• use cheats, scripts, bots or other automated means to register in bulk, farm answers, inflate scores, cheat or otherwise interfere with the normal operation of the services;
• crack, reverse engineer or decompile our software, circumvent technical protection measures, or scrape, crawl, copy or mirror our content and data without permission;
• record, re-record or transcribe course and question bank content and distribute or sell it to third parties;
• resell or rent accounts, or take lessons or examinations on someone else's behalf;
• engage in any other conduct that breaks the law or harms our rights or those of third parties.

You are solely responsible for all legal consequences of such conduct. If your conduct causes loss to us or our affiliates, you must compensate us in full, including administrative fines, damages and loss of goodwill, together with reasonable legal, litigation and investigation costs.

"User content" means text, images, audio, study notes and other material you upload, publish, submit or share through our services.

• You retain your rights in your user content. You warrant that you hold the necessary rights and that the content infringes no third party's copyright, trade marks, reputation, privacy or other rights.
• So that we can provide the services — storing, displaying, transmitting and synchronising your content across devices — you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to use your user content as necessary to provide and improve the services. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for backups retained under law and uses already lawfully established by others.
• Content you share in public areas may be viewed and forwarded by other users within the services in the ways the product allows.
• We have no obligation to screen user content in advance, but we may remove, hide or restrict the distribution of content when it is reported to us or we find it ourselves to breach this agreement or the Rules.

Apart from user content, all intellectual property in our services and their components — including course and teaching content, question banks and papers, audio and video, text, graphics, interface design, software code, databases, trade marks, logos and domain names — belongs to us or the respective rights holders and is protected by copyright, trade mark and other laws.

Provided you comply with this agreement, we grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable licence to use our services for personal, non-commercial study only.

Except as expressly permitted by law or with our prior written consent, you may not copy, modify, translate, compile, rent, lend, sell, distribute or publicly transmit our content, nor remove or obscure any rights notices or marks it carries.

If you believe content in our services infringes your rights, please notify us using the contact details in section 16, with proof of ownership and details of the infringement, and we will deal with it promptly in accordance with the law.

Our services may integrate or link to third-party services and content, such as app stores, payment channels, third-party sign-in, mapping and push services, and links to third-party websites.

When you use those services you must also comply with the third party's terms and privacy policy; the service is provided by that third party on its own responsibility. To the extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for the availability, accuracy or security of third-party services.

Our services may contain advertising or promotional material. You understand and agree that we may lawfully display advertising and commercial information within the services. For goods and services offered by advertisers, you should exercise your own judgement and deal with the advertiser directly; to the extent permitted by law we accept no responsibility, except where we knew or should have known that an advertisement was unlawful and failed to act.

• Given the nature of online services, you agree that we may change, suspend or discontinue part or all of them. For free services we will make reasonable efforts to give advance notice but owe no liability to you or any third party. For paid services we will give advance notice and offer affected users an equivalent alternative; if you do not accept the alternative, we will refund the balance after deducting the value of what you have actually used.
• We need to carry out routine and occasional maintenance, repairs and upgrades. Where this interrupts the services for a reasonable period we will announce it in advance where possible and, to the extent permitted by law, accept no liability.
• We may suspend or terminate the services to you if: your registration details are untrue; you breach this agreement or the Rules; you fail to pay for paid services as agreed; or force majeure or a change in policy prevents us from continuing to operate.
• After termination we may deal with your account data in accordance with the law and the Privacy Policy. Where termination results from your breach, we are not required to refund fees you have paid but not used, unless mandatory law provides otherwise.

If you breach this agreement or the Rules, we may, judging the nature and seriousness of the breach, take one or more of the following steps: issue a warning and require correction; delete or hide the offending content; limit or suspend certain features; suspend or block the account; or terminate the services and delete the account.

Any resulting loss is yours to bear, including the loss of access to your account, virtual entitlements and learning records.

Where your breach leads us to terminate this agreement, we may also terminate other agreements between us in accordance with their terms; and if you breach another agreement with us, we may terminate this one and pursue your liability across both.

Where an unlawful act has been confirmed by a binding decision of an administrative or judicial authority, and in other cases where publication is required by law, we may publish the resulting enforcement information within the services. Where conduct is suspected of being unlawful, we are obliged to keep the relevant records, report to the competent authorities and cooperate with their investigations.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

• the services are provided "as is" and "as available". We do not warrant that they will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that they will meet all of your expectations, and we give no guarantee as to learning outcomes or examination results beyond the content itself;
• we are not liable for interruption or loss caused by force majeure (natural disasters, epidemics, war, strikes, government action and the like), failures of telecommunications carriers or network providers, hacking, computer viruses, your own device or operating error, or third-party service failures;
• we are not liable for indirect, incidental or punitive damages, or for loss of profit, goodwill or data;
• our total liability under this agreement is limited to the fees you actually paid us for the relevant service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

These limits do not apply to damage caused by our wilful misconduct or gross negligence, to personal injury, or to any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. If you use our services as a consumer, your statutory rights under the consumer protection law of your country or region are unaffected.

If you are under 18, or below the age of majority where you live, please use our services with the consent and guidance of a parent or guardian. Purchases must be made by, or with the express consent of, your guardian.

We encourage guardians to take an interest in how the people in their care use the services and to set sensible limits on study time and device use. Guardians with questions about an account, its content or its purchases can contact us as set out in section 16 and we will deal with the matter in accordance with the law.

How we handle minors' personal information is described in the "Protection of minors" section of the Privacy Policy.

How we collect, use, share and protect your personal information, and the rights available to you, are set out in the Chinesia Privacy Policy. That policy forms an integral part of this agreement; please read it alongside these terms.

We may revise this agreement as the law and our services change. The revised agreement will be published on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. For material changes affecting your rights and obligations we will notify you separately by in-app notice, push, email or a prominent announcement.

Once a revision takes effect, continuing to use the services means you accept it. If you do not accept it, you should stop using the services and may delete your account.

Notices we send to the mobile number or email address held on your account, or by in-app notice or push, are deemed delivered on the day they are sent. Please keep your contact details valid and up to date.

This agreement is made in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China.

Its formation, validity, performance, interpretation, amendment, termination and any dispute arising from it are governed by the laws of the People's Republic of China (for the purposes of this agreement, excluding the laws of the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and the rules applicable in the Taiwan region).

Any dispute between you and us should first be resolved through friendly consultation. Failing that, either party may bring proceedings before the competent people's court at the place where this agreement is made.

If you use our services as a consumer outside mainland China, this section does not affect the rights you have under mandatory local law, including the application of local consumer protection law and your right to bring proceedings before a competent local court or use local dispute resolution mechanisms.

• If any provision of this agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in force and the provision concerned will be adjusted as closely as possible to the parties' original intention.
• Our failure or delay in exercising a right under this agreement is not a waiver of that right.
• Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.
• You may not assign your rights and obligations under this agreement without our written consent. We may assign this agreement to a successor entity in a merger, division or acquisition, with prior notice to you.
• This agreement, together with the Privacy Policy and the Rules, constitutes the entire agreement between you and us regarding the services.

For any question about this agreement, please contact us using the details below.