The annual HKTDC Hong Kong Book Fair is becoming a major attraction for book-lovers from the Chinese mainland. At this year’s Book Fair, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) made a greater effort in co-operating with travel agents, book shops and mass media in the Pearl River Delta Region, organising Book Fair-themed tours to bring book-lovers to this major event. This morning, around 300 readers of Guangzhou Daily joined a special tour to visit the Hong Kong Book Fair.
Wu Jingwen, a Guangzhou resident, said, “I visited the Hong Kong Book Fair in 2006 for the first time specifically to attend the lecture by Dr Louis Cha. From then on, I came every year to experience a variety of cultural activities. Browsing through the booths, attending lectures and seminars; even one full day is not quite enough to cover all the activities I would like to go to!”
Zhu Yanhong, 32, was looking for some books from Taiwanese publishers at the Book Fair. “The viewpoint of a Taiwanese writer, say, in a book about the Chiang Kai-shek family, would certainly be very different from that of a Chinese mainland author,” she explained.
Zhou Wentao and Kong Jiayi, two university students, came to the Book Fair for the second time. Ms Zhou said, “I have more free time during the summer holidays to read books I love, and I plan to spend a few hundred yuan on some ‘authentic’ magazines and detective novels.”
Ms Kong highlighted the various lectures and talks as the main attraction for her, including this afternoon’s gathering with Jimmy Liao, the renowned Taiwanese illustrator. She said, “I am a great fan of Jimmy and I came here specifically to see him!”

The HKTDC also joined hands with Guangzhou Daily and its internet portal arm Dayoo.com to hold a readers poll on “the best-loved books in 20 years”, inviting readers from the Pearl River Delta region to cast their votes online for their best-loved works. The result of the poll was announced today. The 20 works elected were (in descending order): “紅樓夢”, “平凡的世界”, “Jane Eyre”, “Andersen Fairy Tales”, “Как закалялась сталь (How the Steel was Tempered)”, “Harry Potter”, “金庸作品集”, “圍城”, “明朝那些事兒”, “Le Petit Prince”, “Who Moved My Cheese”, “萬曆十五年”, “曾國藩家書”, “Gone with the Wind”, “潛規則”, “Da Vinci Code”, “傅雷家書”, “美的歷程”, “萬水千山走遍” and “Walden”.