Xinhua, the state news agency, has a website at http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/ in English. With 150 branches all over the world, Xinhuanet.com releases news around the clock in eight languages: Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Japanese and Portuguese.  

China Daily, the national English-language daily newspaper, was established in Beijing in 1981.  Besides its print edition, China Daily also publishes an internet edition at http://www. chinadaily.com.cn/

China’s GNP had quadrupled since Deng Xioping’s policy of reform and opening-up began some 20 years ago. 

During the first two months of 2003, actual foreign direct investment in China rose 53.6 percent from the year before to $7.54 billion, according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

President Bush’s visit to China for the APEC meeting in Shanghai in October 2001 was his first visit to any country outside the United States following the events of September 11, 2001.

Shanghai, China’s largest city, is preparing to host some 70 million people from around the world at Expo 2010.

The Yangtze River is the nation’s longest river and the third longest in the world, next only to the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. 

The giant water-diversion project on the Yangtze-expected to be completed by the middle of the century-will deliver some 44.8 billion cubic meters of water every year to Beijing and Tianjin and other northern parts of east China.

The gas pipeline will transport fuel from Xinjiang to the energy-hungry Yangtze River Delta. International giants like the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Russia’s Gazprom and Exxon Mobil have participated in the project.

The massive Three Gorges Dam, expected to be completed in 2009, is the world’s largest hydroelectric construction project and will be the largest electricity-generating facility in the world.

The airliner crash in ROK ended Air China’s proud 47-year history without an accident. 

Violent crime in general is not a major concern in China. In 2002, 84.1 percent of residents in China felt a sense of safety in their daily life, according to a survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics. Questionnaires were distributed among 100,000 people, aged at 16 and above, in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

In the Sydney Olympic Games in October 2000, China won 28 gold medals and ranked third among nations in the medal tally. This was the best ever showing by China in the history of its participation in the Olympic Games.