Network Knitted up for Better Information Sharing in China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Network Knitted up for Better Information Sharing in China

China's main telecommunication network has expanded over a large territory, covering the public Internet system in 200 cities in China and connecting 160 education and research networks in 160 cities. The information-sharing network aims to enable people in remote and poor central and western areas to share the cultural and educational resources in libraries, museums, art galleries, and research institutes in the affluent eastern provinces.

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Without stepping outdoors, a teacher in Tibet will soon be able to leaf through a reference book in the National Library in Beijing simply by logging on a national information-sharing network.

The network, due to be completed by 2005, is being knitted up across China with financial aid from the central government.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the network aims to enable people in remote and poor western areas to share the cultural and educational resources in libraries, museums, art galleries and research institutes in the affluent eastern provinces.

By using modern information technology, the cultural and educational information will be digitized and put onto the computer network, which will be available throughout the country, Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng said on Monday at a national conference on developing grassroots culture and education.

"The project which starts this year will create a brand-new channel for exchange of cultural information in China in defiance of the limits of time and space," said Sun, who also heads the construction of the network.

The construction of the computer network for libraries, museums, art centers, artistic institutes and organizations and research institutes has made much progress and accumulated a large amount of digital cultural resources, according to the Ministry of Culture.

China's National Library is one of the project's key programs and will provide 10.78 million bibliotheca free to readers. The website of the National Library which already has 565 member libraries provides 60 million pages of full-text visual data.

Development of China's telecommunication network

China's main telecommunication network has expanded over a large territory, covering the public Internet system in 200 cities in China and connecting 160 education and research networks in 160 cities.

High-tech communication systems, including broad-band network found in 17 key cities in Southeast China, China cable TV network - the world's largest cable TV - and satellite high speed broad-band multimedia communication network, put together, lay a solid technological foundation for the project.

Televisions with a specially-designed box-like receiver for Internet access will enable 320 billion TV viewers to reach the rich cultural resources provided by the project.

"The project will play an important role in improving the present situation in the expansive central western China, where the level of economic and cultural development and information exchange lags far behind their eastern counterparts," Sun said.

The first group of cities to be included in the project will submit their plans at the end of June, according to the Ministry of Culture.

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