The 2026 Beijing Book Fair opened on Thursday amid China's endeavor to promote public reading. The book fair is set at the China International Exhibition Center in Chaoyang District, covering an area of ​​50,000 square meters and presenting more than 400,000 titles with over 2,700 booths. A new regulation the country just rolled out, which will take effect on Feb. 1, aims to raise the intellectual, moral, scientific, and cultural standards of the Chinese people and enhance overall social civility, contributing to China's efforts to build itself into a country with a strong socialist culture. Major publishing groups and institutions are also seizing this opportunity to align with the implementation of national policies and regulations to gain a competitive edge in the industry. Publishers pledge that they will leverage their strengths in serving economic growth hotspots and turn out more high-quality books in alignment with national strategies. Shotlist: Beijing, China - Jan 8, 2025: 1. Entrance to 2026 Beijing Book Fair; 2. Various of visitors, books on display; 3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Gu Qing, Party secretary, Commercial Press (partially overlaid with shots 4-5): "In planning our publishing strategy for 2026, the regulation to promote public reading is a great boon to our book industry. We will deepen our presence in the market of Chinese language and writing reference books, and further our efforts to integrate digital and intelligent technologies to empower the publishing industry following the concept of building an independent Chinese knowledge system." [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]; 4. Various of visitors at book fair; 5. Various of visitor reading book [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]; 6. Various of visitors at book fair; 7. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhu Yanbo, head, marketing department, China Radio and Television Publishing House (ending with shot 8): "We should leverage the current booming industries in the economic development, and the rich audio-video and film resources, to create and public good books in formats to the liking of the people."; 8. Various of visitors selecting books; 9. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Liu Haitao, Party secretary, China Democracy Legal System Publishing House (partially overlaid with shots 10-11): "Like the trilogy of Conscience Challenge (an anti-corruption novel) we published, the sales volume of its first print was over a million copies, and the reprint has now sold over 200,000 copies. How to make books closer to life and people is something our publishing industry should focus on." [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]; 10. Various of books on display; 11. Visitors at book fair [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]; 12. Various of visitors at book fair. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]