A really cool Chinese dictionary

I found this today. and I am so excited. It's basically a Bilingual picture dictionary, with the chinese words, a few phrases, and some extra vocab.

It has almost everything in it, including the parts of the toilet! So if you like 手銬 （Shou3kao4)， but prefer 消防隊員(xiao1fang2dui4yuan3) to 警官 (jing3guan1) this is the book to have. Wonder if Chinese Pod would have a lesson on these things???

(I think this book will be a great ACCOMPLEMENT to Chinese pod, and possibly help with suggestions.)

Discovered this series of books whilst browsing Amazon for Chinese books.

Looking at the google previews though they're not as useful as I was hoping. They just have highlighted keywords translated into Chinese.

An amazing dictionary that I bought is the "Pocket Mandarin Chinese Dictionary." It has both Chinese-English and English-Chinese. It contains the 3,000 most commonly used words in the language, which I find useful because it allows you to focus on the foundations of the language and essential vocabulary. Usually, if I want to say something and I don't know how, the word will be in this dictionary. Rarely do I need to use words that are not in this book.  Check it out!

Jordan

Hello! I am a China lover who has （哎哟） never been to China. I love reading about 老外 experiences living and working in China. I have read a few, including Kirsty Needham's A Season in Red: my great leap forward into the new China, a fun memoir of an Australian working for a stint at the China Daily, and the American Rachel DeWoskin's Foreign Babes in Beijing. Does anyone out there have their own favorite books to share about cultural collision in contemporary China?

Are there any audiobooks in Mandarin available? If so, what would I search for at amazon.cn?  I've been playing around with variations on “声," "音," and "录" for a while, but haven't turned up anything useful.

I'm looking, primarily, for kids'/YA stuff.

There are a couple of things I want to run past the members (once there are some) before I make them official policies.

1. Are the policies as written both fair and understandable?

2. Should I allow Chinese-language book recommendations? And if so, what should be the criteria? Books with specialized language? Books for an adult (over 18) audience?

3. We need some kind of labeling system for content. I'd like to include a reading level (Juvenile (12/13 and under), Young Adult (13/14 to 18), Adult (18+)) and a genre (romance, supernatural, kung fu, erotica . . .) label.

Also, we need a group icon. If anyone has an interesting-looking selection of Chinese language books that they can arrange artfully and take a picture of, I'd be eternally grateful! I'd so it myself, but I only have the first Harry Potter book in my own Chinese-language library so far.

This morning I was looking through old threads to find suggestions on (etymology) dictionaries (Changye mentioned a few I remembered). I realized there is no place on Cpod where you can look up info on specific study / reference material. Maybe we can post our favorite "old school" media (books) or reading suggestions in this thread so others can benefit from it?
I start with something I am busy with at this moment: Alice in Wonderland. You can find this book in Chinese (25 RMB) and English (21 RMB) in big Cities in China and I "read" (well try to read) both at the same time. First I read the English version, and then the Chinese and I think this will help me with my Chinese in the long run. I can be wrong, but it is worth to try and I like it. After I am finished with this one I might go for Harry Potter :-)

Not sure how to organize this book thing, but it is a start and any suggestions input is welcome!

Hi All,

I was recently browsing a waterstones as you do and although I really have too many chinese books already I came across a book Edexcel GCSE Chinese.  This is probably unique to the UK as GCSE's are our qualifications but I've found it to be pretty interesting.  

It's quite a lively book with pictures and workings, much like the kind of thing my kids work with in subjects like science etc.  Very different from the books of my youth but I've come to like it quite quickly.  Its slightly broken for me because I don't have the accompanying tapes so cannot do the listening exercises but the written exercises are pretty much exactly aimed at my sort of level.

That in itself is interesting as I study chinese for my own personal satisfaction not for qualifications so I've never really guaged my level outside of chinese pod.

Anyway I thought some of you may like to look it up

Trevor