You may learn a language by reading the news. It is very helpful to learn Chinese this way too.

Read the news in Chinese and try to understand. This may be your Chinese learning goal but it may be your practical learning approach too.

读新闻学汉语 Popular News Popular Chinese

This is a popular learning program at Chinese.cn. You may just go to their site and type in Popular News in search, and you will find lots of episodes of this program.
The title actually means “Read News and Learn Chinese”. This is really a great learning resources for extensive listening. (This reminds me of Special English program by Voice of America, which helped me to learn English very fast.)
e.g.
Popular news,Popular Chinese NO.201102
Content Outline:
1.Center of Chinese culture experience opens in Chicago
2.Spring Festival tourism booms in China
3.Beijing embraces first snow this winter
4.Visiting art galleries in China will soon be free
Popular news,popular Chinese-NO.201105
Content Outline 本期内容:
1.Chinesesupercomputers will use ‘homemade’ chips by the end of the year
国产超级计算机年底全部用上“中国芯”
2.China plans to forge Zhongguancun as another “Silicon Valley”
中国计划将中关村打造成另一个“硅谷”
3. DisneylandShanghai’s first phase will cost 24.5 billion yuan
上海迪士尼一期总投资245亿
4.Starbucks plans to launch instant coffee products in China
星巴克着眼中国市场 推出速溶咖啡

Let us know how you like this kind of programs. We’ll introduce you to other similar programs if you like.