Great Wall Chinese is a major project planned and organized by China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOCFL). A new Chinese teaching mode based on the development of the technology of multimedia network is adopted.

The goal of Great Wall Chinese is to develop learners' Chinese communicative competence. Different means of teaching, such as on-line multimedia courseware, multimedia CD, face-to-face teaching in class, textbooks and workbooks etc. are employed, and the management mode to monitor learners' progress and to test the learning effect is also used. Individualized learning plans with the backing of rich teaching resources are provided, so as to meet the needs of learners of Chinese learning at any time, any place, and any level in China or overseas.

The textbook is an important component of Great Wall Chinese. It well reflects the levels of the series and well presents the contents of this teaching mode. The textbook is divided into three parts: Essentials in Communication, Progression in Communication, and Fluency in Communication. All the three parts are connected smoothly with each other and can be used independently as well. Each part has 6 textbooks corresponding to 6 levels, and each level contains 10 units. The textbooks are mainly used together with the on-line multimedia courseware. It can also be used with multimedia CD, in classroom or for self-study.

Four stories are taken as the threads in the textbooks of Great Wall Chinese, which are Starting a Business, Love, Legend, and The Contemporary Era. The topics cover economy, culture, sports, ethics, etc., concerning every aspect of the present Chinese social life. The stories are about what happens to several foreign students, Mike, Mary, Kim Tae-sung, Yamaguchi Kazuko, Faye, who came to China from different countries, and their Chinese friends, Zhang Yuanyuan, Zhao Yulan, Wang Yang, Li Dongsheng, etc. Every one of these characters has his/her own distinctive personality. The stories are interesting, well plotted and reflect the real life. The texts organically combine the language learning with the plots of the stories, and the language used is real, natural, idiomatic and practical.

Essentials in Communication caters for learners of elementary Chinese. The content covers personal information, communication for survival, daily life, learning and working, social activities, etc., focusing on satisfying the basic needs for communication in daily life.

Great Wall Chinese is developed by the Great Wall Chinese project team of Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU). Having absorbed the comments from many Chinese learners and teachers and after repeated reviews and revisions by experts, it has received excellent teaching effect during the experimental phase.

The project was developed with the support and help of NOCFL, BLCU and lots of experts home and abroad. It is the fruit of the collective scientific research and wisdom. We would like to thank these people wholeheartedly for their valuable support and generous help.