Web Smarts

August 24, 1999

www.zhaodaola.com

what: zhaodaola.com is one of China's premiere search engines. It provides up-to-date international, financial, and business news, as well as entertainment and travel information.

BEST POINTS: Zhaodaola.com is a great place to start for anyone interested in anything having to do with China. Traveling to Shanghai? Looking for the weekend forecast in Beijing? Want to know where the Shenzhen stock market closed? Interested in Chinese night life? As a search engine, Zhaodaola.com could be called the "Yahoo" of China. It has great links and plenty of them. Besides the search feature and all the news and information, there are several categories for you to click on, including "Living in China," "Education," "Laws & Regulations," "Social Science," and "News & Media." The "Living in China" section offers several links related to learning Mandarin Chinese. Also, there is a night-life section. It's called "ZDLife." Here you can find out about everything from rock bands in China, to the new film by famous actress Gong Li, or even where the 4th of July party was held in Beijing.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: When you arrive at the site's home page, it will be in Chinese. (The characters look like random symbols.) To read in English, just add "/english" to the Web address, or click on any of the "English" boxes that appear on the home page. The words "ZhaoDaoLa" mean, "Found It!" Pretty catchy, eh?