Travel in Chinese is a 15-minute segment on CCTV-9 that is hosted by Dashan. The segment is a Chinese lesson.
The Chinese lesson segments is broken down into:
On occasion, the entire program is a review of past lessons with guests consisting of Chinese language students who will converse completely in Mandarin while Dashan responds in English. Typical students are usually not of Chinese origin.
The programme particularly focuses on aspects of the Standard Chinese language. Dashan usually points out many language points such as idioms that don't particularly translate to English and the use of the measure word.
Although anyone can start learning Chinese through this program, the program is geared for many levels from beginner to advanced.
Travel in Chinese succeeded Communicate in Chinese Archived 2010-05-04 at the Wayback Machine, the previous title, but also with Dashan as the host.
Some key differences in strategies between Travel in Chinese and Communicate in Chinese are:
In January, 2008, a new series replaced Travel in Chinese on CCTV-9. Still hosted by Dashan but now titled Sports Chinese Archived 2010-05-16 at the Wayback Machine, this series largely follows a format similar to Travel in Chinese and Communicate in Chinese, with new content focusing on the topic of sports as Beijing prepared to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The 13-episode series, Easy Chinese Archived 2010-05-08 at the Wayback Machine, has been aired during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, helping foreigners visiting China during Olympic Games. Daily lessons with short Chinese phrases, more simple than Travel in Chinese and Sports Chinese. It's hosted by Aurora Carlson.
Newly launched on CCTV-News, the 100-episode series Growing up with Chinese Archived 2010-08-06 at the Wayback Machine started on August 2, 2010. It is aimed at teenagers and hosted by Charlotte MacInnis, a television host known as Ai Hua in China.