President Xi Jinping's book on governing China is proving a popular read as Chinese Book Week launched on Thursday in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Houston.

Guo Weimi, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office, said the event was meant to enhance mutual understanding and cultural exchange between China and the United States.

Readers crowded into the capital's Politics and Prose Bookstore for a promotion of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, which is available in more than 500 bookstores in the US, according to Wang Youbu, general manager of the Shanghai Media Development Co that distributes the book overseas.

Wang said his companies contacted bookstores in the US two months after the book was released last year. On Feb 17, the book was put on shelves in US bookstores, and the company shipped 500 copies to Washington earlier this month, as it sold out in the US capital.

The book has been printed in several languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese and Russian. About 5.3 million copies have been sold around the world, Guo said.

"President Xi will visit the US in five days, and cultural exchange is an important part of the interactions between China and the rest of the world," Guo said. "I hope the book can get more people in the US know about our country."

Zhai Dongsheng, visiting professor at Georgetown University, said Xi has gained more and more support from the Chinese people by making reforms to improve people's lives in public welfare and fighting against corruption. Chinese books like this one should be promoted overseas, he said.

Ross Terrill, a researcher at the Fairbank Center of Harvard University and author of Mao: A Biography, said Xi emerged from Chinese officials to be a top leader with a different outlook on change.

Liliane Willens, a retired French professor who was born in Shanghai and lived in China until 1951, said she didn't know much about Xi, but wanted to learn about what his ideology and what is happening in China, because of her affection for Shanghai and the country.

huyongqi@chinadaily.com.cn