Chess in China 1998. Karpov's second visit took him to Beijing, Shenyang, Shanghai and Guangzhou – four of the five largest cities in China. He also took the opportunity to launch the Chinese edition of his book "Disney's Guide to Chess" and appeared to autograph his books at major bookstores in each city he visited. There were 20,000 copies for the first printing and more than half were sold within one week of his visit. Karpov played a total of five exhibitions and once again, the immense publicity raised the interest of chess to another level. At present, in terms of media publicity,
Chess in China the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the city of Shenyang had won the right over international cities to host the second edition of the World Cities Team Championship. An industrial town with a population of 6.5 million people, Shenyang hosted the Asian Sports Festival which included 30 non-Olympic sports and chess. About 1,500 participants from 40 countries took part in the 2-week festival. In 2000, Shenyang unveiled the largest regional QiYuan in China with space to hold 1,000 players, estimated to have cost US $25million. Following the World Cities Team Championship, Shenyang hosted the 1st FIDE World