1.Abridged versions of mini-stories and novellas written by contemporary Chinese writers, reflecting the everyday lives of ordinary Chinese people;
2.The vocabulary in this book consists of 500 essential Chinese words, which are mainly chosen based on the first 500 Chinese words of the 1500 high frequency words in the International Curriculum for Chinese Language Education (2008). The book also includes some of the 600 Chinese words of the Chinese Proficiency Test Syllabus Level 3 (2009). The 500 high frequency words along with some HSK Level 3 words that appear in the book are all included in the glossary;
3.Commonly used words appear in high frequency to form concise and short sentences with complete structure;
4.Pinyin is added to the complete text, English notes or sample sentences for difficult words and sentences are provided;
5.Guide to Reading and About the Author in English, and Questions in Chinese are
provided for each story;
6.Accompanied by original illustrations and CD in MP3 format. A pinyin-invisible card is designed specially for those who do not want to read pinyin

Shi Ji is an associate professor at Chinese Teaching Center of Southwest Jiaotong University. She has been engaged in teaching Chinese language courses since 1996 including those at Venice University in Italy from November 2004 to November 2006. As an experienced teacher of Chinese as a second language, she has published a dozen articles in this field.