The World of Chinese, China's only bilingual magazine for the overseas Chinese language learners, starts publication in Beijing on Sunday.

Co-produced by the Beijing Center for the Promotion of Chinese Language Teaching Overseas and the Commercial Press, the Chinese-English bimonthly is mainly published overseas, said Zhu Xiaojian, chief editor of the magazine who is also a professor with the Beijing Normal University.

"We hope the magazine will help the people, who are interested in China and want to learn Chinese, overcome the hardship of learning the so-called one of the most difficult language in the world," said Zhu.

"What's more, we believe the magazine will set up a bridge for foreigners to get to Chinese culture and the people who speak the language," he said.

With the rapid development of Chinese economy and the increasing exchanges between China and the rest of the world, a "fever of learning Chinese language" is spreading worldwide.

An investigation with the Beijing Center for the Promotion of Chinese Language Teaching Overseas estimated 30 million of overseas Chinese learners.

"Now, the whole world is wondering why China is developing so fast and so well. If people can not understand China's history or they are not aware what the 1.3 billion people like, hate, pursue and think, they won't find the answer," said Xu Jialu, a distinguished Chinese linguist and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

"I hope the World of Chinese will become a key to their questions," said Xu.

The magazine includes more than 30 columns, such as Popular New Words and Phrases, Enigmatic Chinese Characters, China Album and Life style, which are taken in charge of by prestigious Chinese teaching experts and foreigners who know Chinese well, according to Zhu.

"In fact, besides overseas learners, foreigner in China and those Chinese who are interested in English are also are target readers," Zhu said.

In addition, the Chinese-Japanese and Chinese-Korean versions of the magazine is under planning, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2006)