"Closely related with the author's Beginning Chinese and its companion volume, Character Text for Beginning Chinese, this text is based on a new approach which not only takes into account the advantages of the oral-aural method but gets the student more quickly into material that he is likely to encounter in actual written Chinese. Unique features are the emphasis on compounds and their extensive use in various types of exercises. The 1,200 combinations are based on 400 characters; in all, the book contains 120,000 characters of running text. All compounds appear in illustrative sentences accompanied by English translations, in dialogues as a means of audio-lingual reinforcement, and in narrative or expository form. Additional exercises include maps, booksellers' book lists, correspondence, poems, table of contents, and brief passages from the works of outstanding writers such as Sun Yatsen, Hu Shih, Mao Tse-tung, and Lu Hsun. Supplementary lessons present reading material using the simplified characters adopted in mainland China."

Het boek zelf is in goede staat (de pagina's zijn alleen wat vergeeld), maar de lijm op de rug is aan het verkruimelen, zoals te zien op foto. De binding is wel intact dus het boek valt niet uit elkaar.

Let op: met dit boek leer je het traditionele schrift (gebruikt in bijv. Taiwan of Hong Kong of oudere teksten), niet het vereenvoudigd schrift dat tegenwoordig in de meeste delen van China wordt gebruikt.