Chinese Course is a series of comprehensive Chinese learning materials designed for international students studying in China. It consists of 6 volumes, which take a degree-granting institution one year to finish. It is one of the most popular and influential textbook series for undergraduate education targeted at foreigners. The first two editions have sold more than two million copies in total.

This is Book 3A of the third edition, including a total of 13 lessons. It follows Book 2B and comes to the stage of vocabulary and short passages. Each lesson basically consists of five sections: text, new words, notes, word usage, and exercises. The texts are mostly narrations, developing students' listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills; the number of new words increases gradually; the word usage section explains the usage of words and the comparison of synonyms. The exercises come in diverse types, including comprehension, imitation, communication, etc.

Professor Yang Jizhou of Beijing Language and Culture University has worked in the field of CFL teaching and research and CFL textbook writing for many years. His published works include Teaching Syllabus of Elementary Chinese for Foreign Students, the Chinese Course series, the Climbing Up series, the Vocational Chinese series, 1700 Groups of Frequently Used Chinese Synonyms, 800 Frequently Used Chinese Function Words, The Commercial Press Learner’s Dictionary of Chinese Idioms, A Handbook of Spoken Chinese Sentences, etc. His major papers include “Order of Grammatical Items in Elementary Level CFL Teaching” and “Issues in the Compilation of Elementary Chinese Textbooks”, etc. Prof. Yang won the 2nd prize of 2001 Beijing (Higher) Education Achievements.