A man reads a book in a library in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/ntjoy.com]

The annual Nantong "Taofen" Reading Festival kicked off in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, on April 22, one day ahead of the World Book and Copyright Day that falls on April 23.

Founded in the late 1990s, the reading festival has since become an iconic event in Nantong. This year's festival will run until October and consist of more than 200 activities.

In recent years, the city's publicity and culture departments have been working to increase people's interest in reading by building libraries and bookstores across the city.

To date, Nantong has built 28 provincial-level five-star rural libraries and 354 municipal-level four-star rural libraries.

These efforts have paid off, as more and more Nantong residents enjoy reading in their spare time.

Statistics also show that the Nantong Library had issued 243,800 library cards by the end of 2020, 8,219 more than in 2019. The library was visited 620,979 times in 2020, while its online portal was visited 25.23 million times.

A total of 379 readers borrowed more than 100 books that year, with the top reader borrowing 516 books in 2020.