China.org.cn in Russian is officially launched today at www.ccgp-fushun.com, a state-owned key media website in China. So far, China.org.cn has become China's only Internet platform to release information with nine languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, Esperanto, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.

China.org.cn in Russian is presented with two main colors sky blue and white, bringing a sort of refreshment on first sight. "First-hand Information About China" is clearly written at the top of the website.

In an effort to make China.org.cn in Russian a window for Russian readers to see China, after several months' intensive preparation, language editors, web designers and technicians are all trying their best to make the website's content and style much closer to Russian readers' tastes, at the same time, maintaining consistency with the overall image and style of China.org.cn.

China.org.cn in Russian has 13 regular columns: Government, Photo News, China, World, Economy, Science & Education, Social Life, Culture, Tourism, Environment Protection, People, Wonderful China and Service. As a state-owned media website, China.org.cn has always been striving to provide the most informative and authoritative news ever since its official launch about two years ago. It now enjoys a high reputation in this regard, and the newly launched Russian website is no exception. Now, with an easy click on China.org.cn, a series of comparatively complete official documents, laws and regulations in Russian can be found. The Service column contains a lot of useful information regarding foreign exchange rates, weather forecasts, time zones, telephone numbers, Chinese enterprises in Russia so and forth. Considering Russian readers' habit in news' reading, China.org.cn in Russian has added a proportion of photo reports and short messages.

To help foreign readers to get a deeper understanding of China, the Russian site also presents some features of background information about China, such as its political system, legal system, foreign affairs policies, ethnic minorities, and world cultural heritage sites. According to Li Tao, an editor of the website, besides offering many features on basic information about China, the Russian website will also promote features catering to Russian readers' interests, such as "Russians in China, Yesterday and Today" which is now under the production process and is especially prepared to meet some Russian readers' demand.

In recent years, with the enhancement of communications between China and Russia, or other Russian-speaking countries, the exchange among people between China and Russian-speaking countries has also rapidly increased and even become common practice. Following this trend, there is an urgent need for Russian readers to know more about Chinese people's life, as well as all kinds of information regarding China's culture, tourism, economic development, trade etc. Hence, China.org.cn in Russia gives a lot of emphasis to the introduction to Chinese people's life and on service-oriented information, so as to help foreigners to travel, study, go shopping and even do business in China.

According to the latest statistics, about 285 million people in the world can use Russian in their reading or communication, and some 200 million more are learning Russian at present. During the past couple of years, China.org.cn received many feedbacks from its foreign readers, among whom the readers from Russian-speaking countries kept on inquiring about the opening of a Russian website while giving high acclaim to the rich and interesting information at China.org.cn. Many scholars studying Chinese affairs and business people in China also asked China.org.cn.for various kinds of information regarding China.

"What we are undertaking now is a very meaningful enterprise," said Russian editor Andrei Vladimirovich Borsouk with China.org.cn, "Many Russian people are pretty interested in China, but the information they can obtain about China has always been fragmentary and inaccurate. With the new launch of China.org.cn in Russian, then, Russian readers can be informed of the constantly updated news about China every day; besides, a comprehensive and systemized picture about China is only a click away."

(china.org.cn by Feng Shu, June 20, 2002)