First European Portal on China Debuts

Europe-Based Portal on China Inaugurates

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NearChina.com, a first and ever largest portal site about China has been formally launched. Run under the banner of Near China as suggested in its domain name, the web site is aimed to bring China closer to the Europeans by offering comprehensive news and information services.

Recently, the German-based portal has also been credited to using official news from the People's Daily Online, the internet platform of the largest circulated and the most authoritative and influential newspaper in China.

Besides providing daily news and analysis about the most important events taking place in China, NearChina.com also guides web surfers to China-related pages or web sites under a dozen of categories, including History and Culture, Investment and Business, Government, Education, Entertainment, Health, Tourism, Forum and so on.

"Our mission is to provide people, in particular Europeans, with quality information service about China", says Wagner Manfred, CEO of the dotcom.

Mr. Wagner explained that as China plays an increasingly important role in the world scene, more and more people want to do business, study, travel and even live in China. "We endeavor to build an information expressway into China for foreigners", he added.

Along with the large international corporations, medium- and small-sized foreign companies are progressively entering the Chinese market. To cater for their needs, NearChina.com collects comprehensive data about literally every industries concerning investment, trade and products, etc.

Not only the big potential Chinese market matters, NearChina.com also intensively introduces the unique Chinese culture to the outside world. Interestingly enough, the logo of the web site is composed of an arrow and a Giant Panda. Arrow suggests the direction of people's attention. That is toward China. Giant Panda is no doubt a symbol of the country of China. NearChina.com provides Chinese cultural features such as Chinese cooking, Chinese martial arts and Chinese Idioms.

In the meantime, people can subscribe information that interests them through the NearChina.com mailing list. They can also join Forums to discuss their concerns with other visitor online.

In the very near future, NearChina.com will also set up a booking engine platform, first of its kind. Companies, especially travel agencies specialized in China tourism, will be able to place orders for products, book hotels, flights, tours and other services directly online.



By PD Online Staff Cui Fang