Wall calendars are falling out of favor with the public in China as the people no longer buy them for home decoration or New Year gifts.

Large wall calendars featuring beautiful women, luxury cars and landscapes were enormously popular throughout the country when they first appeared in the mid-1980s.

Delicately-printed monthly calendars became best sellers even though they were more expensive than the single-page calendars.

However, as people's living standards gradually improved, some urban residents no longer want to decorate their houses with wall calendars, said today's China Daily.

Publishers which used to make huge profits from calendar sales also have an apathy to wall calendars. Shanghai Culture Publishing Co. nearly canceled its wall calendar publishing plans for next year, and the Shanghai People's art Publishing House also cut production from the usual 4.5 million copies to less than 400,000 this year, the newspaper said.

However, calendars with special features are still welcomed, such as desk calendars and one type, on which buyers can have their own photos printed.

Parents can make calendars with their babies on them; young people can dress up like pop stars for their calendars; and newly- weds can make calendars to commemorate their union, the newspaper said.