The Birmingham Mail has published 600 copies of a special edition of the paper with a Mandarin front page.

The front page was created to mark the launch of a new Chine-Birmingham business forum by the city council, working in partnership with the Chinese ambassador, Fu Ying.

The front page is headlined "China meets Birmingham” but those words and full article that follow them were translated into Mandarin.

Editor Steve Dyson said: "We are proud of this initiative by our city, and are pleased to help by providing the story in Mandarin so that our own Chinese community, as well as business chiefs back in mainland China, can see how serious we are about doing business."

It is not the first time the Mail has run a front page headline in Madarin. The paper produced one two years ago when negotiations over the region’s Rover plant were still finely balanced.

Its P1 headline in Mandarin read 'No more Chinese Whispers'.

But this is the first time the Mail has printed a Chinese slip edition, with the article translated as well as the headline.

Steve added: "The Mail wrote and had the article on the business forum translated into Mandarin, along with a headline, to give to every dignitary at the event last night.

"We did that by creating a one-off Chinese slip edition after the main afternoon run, printing off 600 copies.

"We also took this opportunity to hand out free sample copies in and around the Chinese quarter in Birmingham."