The Commercial Press began life as a printing company in Shanghai, in 1897. Five years later, in 1902, the Chinese scholar, Zhang Yuanji, joined with the founders of the printing press to set up an editorial and translation department, thus launching the Commercial Press as China's first modern publishing house. Since then, it has published more than 40,000 titles. In addition to its work in translation, since its earliest days, the Commercial Press has made a great contribution to documenting and advancing Chinese culture. In 1954, the Commercial Press moved to its current premises in the center of Beijing, where it compiles and translates academic works in philosophy, politics, economics, history and geography, as well as dictionaries, reference books in Chinese and other languages, research works, textbooks, and popular books. Widely acknowledged as China's pioneering publisher, it continues to maintain the high quality of its output to date.