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The purpose of this dictionary is to teach beginning level Chinese characters. It is suitable for beginners who are non-native speakers of Chinese or are of the overseas Chinese community. The 300 most common characters were chosen for this dictionary by combining frequency of occurrence statistics for elementary school usage in both Taiwan and Mainland China. Mastery of these 300 characters allows the learner recognize up to 65% of the characters on an average page of text in common publications and newspapers. The dictionary focuses on simplified characters, but traditional forms are also provided. For each character entry, the following information is provided: radical, frequency of occurrence, number of strokes, Pinyin, MPS (Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also known as Bopomofo), an English definition and a stroke order diagram as well as a rich variety of word compounds and example sentences. Approximately 1,100 word compounds and 1,000 example sentences are included. The vocabulary provided is made up of high frequency words and phrases used in elementary schools (in both Mainland China and Taiwan) and were chosen according to the simplicity, clarity, and concreteness of their definitions. Example sentences were written to be simple, clear, and practical for daily life. The illustrations for each entry are vivid, easy to understand and complement the given explanations. The combination of interesting definitions and vivid illustrations increase both the learner's enjoyment and the depth of learning.