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You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English, I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
China's media watchdog is calling on the country's radio and television stations to take the lead in promoting Mandarin.
The State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television urges emcees, interviewers and talk show hosts to speak Mandarin on their television and radio programs. Slang that violates language specifications is prohibited.
The administration calls on the media to abide by the syntax rules and not to coin new words or non-standard wording.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education reveal that about 30 percent of the Chinese population, or 400 million people, cannot speak Mandarin.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
New Zealand's South Island will take its first step in opening directly to Chinese visitors.
The move will take place in February when China Southern Airlines flies the first commercially operated 787 Dream-liner into Christchurch in the island.
The service from Guangzhou in southern China to New Zealand's second city would be part of a one-off charter program for the Chinese New Year, the Spring Festival, which falls on the 31st of January. It could lead to a regular scheduled service.
Tourism from China continued to grow in the South Island. Chinese visitor arrivals into Christchurch increased more than 40 percent in October, 2013.
