Taicang city in Jiangsu province has strengthened its efforts over the years to help enrich the cultural life of locals and make cultural information easier to access.

As part of these efforts, Taicang has built a new library, museum, cultural museum and theatre, making the total space of cultural facilities in the area more than 180,000 square meters.

The city's efforts to increase the accessibility of cultural information have benefitted many of its residents. Every afternoon, Lang Mulun, a retired teacher from the Chien-Shiung Institute of Technology, goes to the city library for reading. "I'm now 80 years old, but when I get immersed in a world of books, I feel I'm still a student who is longing for more knowledge," he said. Lang is just a member of a large reading group in the city.

Cultural life has become an important part of the identity of the people in Taicang, regardless of age or gender.

In 2014, the library received a total of 933,600 readers and more than 860,000 books were borrowed. The library also held 366 reading activities last year, attracting 58,873 participants. Additionally, 45 lectures held at the library helped to lure an audience of 10,180 people, meaning that each lecture was attended by over 200 people.

The number of participants astonished the lecturers. Chen Shangrong, the associate professor of Nanjing University of Science and Technology, said, "I'm surprised that such a normal literary lecture in a county-level city can attract such a large audience. They listened carefully without phone ringing during the lecture."

Edited by Jacob Hooson