Yantai to host national book expo

The 30th National Book Expo will be held from July 16-18 in Yantai, a coastal city of East China's Shandong province.

Hosted by the National Press and Publication Administration and Shandong Provincial People's Government, the book expo has one main site in Jinan, the province's capital, and two sub-venues in Yantai and Tai'an.

The expo organizers will set up 80 booths with five exhibition areas covering intangible cultural heritage creations, best-selling books, and children's books at the Yantai sub-venue at the Yantai Cultural Center. Nearly 60 publishing companies will showcase about 25,000 titles and cultural products in Yantai.

During the expo, the city's culture and tourism bureau will give out book vouchers worth 1.2 million yuan ($185,700) to encourage residents to purchase books and other relevant products.

A series of cultural activities will also be held in the city, including a poetry recital and music event that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

Organizers said that the expo will be an opportunity to exhibit more new book titles, the latest publishing products and technology, and also showcase the charm of the province's cultural elements.

The Yantai government is focusing more on cultivating reading habits in children. More efforts have been made to improve the city's reading facilities for children.

Data showed that the reading rate of minors aged from zero to 17 in Yantai was 90.5 percent in 2019, higher than the national average in 2018.