Wuhan poised to be China's first 'City of Reading'

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

Wuhan launched the "City of Reading" project on April 15, becoming the first city in China to clearly state its goal of developing into a "City of Reading."

Many Wuhan residents attended the project's launching ceremony. The venue for the ceremony was divided into six functional areas, with four areas designed for book exhibition and sale, book exchange, book crossing, and leisure reading respectively. Local resident Wu Zhengxiang took more than 1,000 picture-story books to the ceremony, and exchanged books with several people with similar interests in half an hour.

"Reading is one of the few things in the world that are completely good," said Chi Li, a famous writer and president of Wuhan Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Chi hopes that the project will effectively promote reading among local residents. Books can help a reader live hundreds of lifetimes, and relieve inexplicable pain, she said.

Wuhan has developed a five-year action plan for building itself into a "City of Reading." According to the plan, the city will build a fully functional network of public libraries, a convenient and efficient digital reading service network, and a relatively complete network of book stores, and carry out a series of reading activities of national influence in the next five years, in order to become one of the top reading cities in China.

Read the Chinese version athttp://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2012-04/16/nw.D110000renmrb_20120416_1-08.htm?div=-1