Chinanews, Beijing, January 23 – Statistics show that there are more than 132 million Internet surfers in China nowadays. According to a recent online questionnaire survey, 81.4% of the 2,952 responders choose surfing the Internet as their major entertainment, much higher than watching TV (65.6%) and reading (52.8%).

 

In the last five years, Chinese youths read less and less. In 2003, averagely 51.7% of educated youths read at least 1 book every month, and only 46.4% of them had the habit of reading magazines, while the figure in 1999 was 57%.

 

In fact, 43% of the responders complain that they are too busy to read, and 21.3% of those who read books only browse several pages before going to bed, other 12% only read as a pastime in the restrooms. No more than 11.8% of the responders say they read for longer than 1 hour every day.