China launches Web site to teach Chinese

SHANGHAI  - China launched a Web site, www.linese.com, on Saturday

offering free Chinese lessons and materials to promote the study and use of the

language abroad.






The site includes audio-visual presentations, interactive exercises and advice
for teachers of Mandarin Chinese, with photographs and descriptions of cultural

icons such as the Great Wall, kung fu actor Jackie Chan and basketball star Yao

Ming.






Many of the exercises touch on China's mythical and imperial past, including
practice sentences such as "how can you be a hero if you are unarmed" and "I

find that Tibetans like worshipping heroes".






China is keen to expand its cultural influence along with its growing economic
power, and is also setting up a network of "Confucius Institutes" around the

world to promote its culture.






The Web site is only in Chinese and English, but versions in Japanese and Korean
are being developed, the official Xinhua news agency said.






More than 30 million people are now learning Chinese as a foreign language and
more than 2,500 universities in 100 countries offer Chinese courses, the

Ministry of Education says.