Excellent dictionary with excellent definitions, May 1, 2004
Reviewer: A reader
Things I like about the dictionary:

*Excellent definitions (the definitions in this book are some of the best I've read; they are accurate and really give the student a sense of what the particular Chinese word/character means)

*Example sentences/phrases with Pinyin (unlike the Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary (ISBN 0195911512) which does NOT have Pinyin for its example sentences/phrases, this one does, with English translation as well; this if very helpful when one wants to see how the character/word is used)

*Comprehensive (according to the dictionary itself, the work contain over 10,000 characters; but this is not for the scholar of Chinese, for as the preface states, "The dictionary is a small-sized reference book for learning Chinese, chiefly for teachers and students in primary schools and middle schools, and for intermediate-educated readers as well.")

*The original Chinese text is included (this is actually a translation of an actual Chinese dictionary)

Things I don't like about this book:

*All the definitions under the head character is in one paragraph (unlike the Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary (ISBN 0195911512) which list each character combinations of a particular character on separate line, this dictionary does not. Thus, all the information is in one paragraph, making it rather difficult to find the character combination (i.e., the word) one is looking for)

*Lack of some character combination (perhaps because the book is a translation of an actual Chinese dictionary, it does not include some important character combinations; this is very unfortunate, for it is an excellent dictionary overall)

This dictionary and the Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary (ISBN 0195911512) are an excellent combination.

I have found this book to be very helpful because it has what many Chinese dictionaries do not have: a breakdown of every Chinese character into its "zhuyin" form. Most dictionaries limit their pronunciations to just the "pinyin." However, in order to pronounce the words as accurate as possible, it is best to use the "zhuyin" form. Knowing the "zhuyin" form will also help if you ever need to look up a word in a Chinese dictionary according to its pronunciation. Every word in this book is alphabatized by its "pinyin," but it lists each word's Chinese character first, then the "pinyin," and then its "zhuyin." One minor thing about the book is how it lists the simplified characters. In most cases it provides the traditional form, but I would prefer it list the traditional characters first. The print is not too small and easy to read. If you need to look up the definition of a Chinese word, then this is a great resource for looking it up using English letters.