Far beyond print

A wide range of activities at the Beijing International Book Fair drew the attention of young visitors. The annual fair, launched in 1986, has now grown into one of the world's biggest book events. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

According to the corporation, during the fair 3,075 deals were made to sell or co-publish Chinese titles with overseas counterparts in the global market, an increase of 6.5 percent compared with 2015. Chinese publishers bought in 1,943 titles from overseas publishers.

Hosted by both the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the Beijing municipal government, the fair had an exhibition area that was 19 percent larger than that in 2015 for a showing of 300,000 titles.

By the time it wrapped up on Sunday, the fair had attracted 2,407 publishing organizations from 86 countries and regions, and presented some 1,000 events in the capital.

Besides literary salons, publishing forums and book releases, fairgoers got a bite of gourmet culture and tried carpentry and other activities at events staged during the BIBF.

Wu Shangzhi, vice-minister of the administration for publishing, says: "Global publishing is going through an evolution. The integrated development of traditional publishing with new media and new technology-based forms of publishing has stood as a necessity and inevitable path."

"In China, the new forms of publishing showed great momentum in 2015 and right now, even the traditional publishers are investing heavily in that field," Wu adds. He says that the country earned 440.39 billion yuan ($65.94 billion) from digital publishing in 2015, the highest ever and a year-on-year bump of 30 percent.