The book sold 100,000 copies, showing how much the Chinese wanted to learn about the world outside, says Wang Bin, an employee from the publishing house.

Meanwhile, its first title published overseas-1989's A General Introduction to China was a coproduction with the UK's Pergamon Press.

Speaking about the first foray overseas, Zhao Jianying, the president of the publishing house, says: "It (the publication) signaled one of its main missions-telling China's stories to the world."

Recalling how the publishing house has grown over the years, he says: "We started with tens of employees, but have more than 200 now. And from the thousands of yuan we earned when we started, we are earning more than 200 billions ($31 billion) now. Additionally, we have published over 20,000 titles."

One of publishing house's top sellers is its 11-volume series The Cambridge History of China.

It has spanned generations of editors since 1992, and survived a slump when such works were out of fashion in the 1990s-early 2000s.