Nearly 70 percent of Chinese Internet users like chatting on the net, with leisure-time hobbies ranking as the No. 1 topic, a recent survey on Chinese cultural websites reveals.

Personal affairs, work, political and academic issues came next as the most popular topics for the netizens, according to the survey of 3,040 netizens conducted by the Organizing Committee of the Internet Civilization Project (OCICP) in 10 big cities across the country, like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The survey shows that China now has 2,536 Chinese-language chatting websites, and 12,592 online columns for BBS, discussion, postings and forums, all favorite places for the netizens to speak their minds, and accounting for over one third of the whole content of Chinese cultural websites, which total about 52,000.

Online chatting accounts for about one quarter of netizens' daily communication and online discussion or commenting has become a regular habit for them, the survey says.

In China, online chatting used to be dominated by youths seeking fun, their other halves and English practicing opportunities. Nowadays, some learned scholars and high-level government officials have joined the conversations.

On Dec. 23, 2003, China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing participated in a scheduled online chat session that lasted around two hours. The content of the chat ranged from China's foreign policy and the Sino-US and Sino-Japanese relations to Li's personal life.

Meanwhile, online comments and opinions from the netizens attract much more attention from government officials than ever before, and the Internet is gradually entering the country's public affairs decision-making process.

In Shenzhen, the local legislature recently issued a circular on shenzhen.net.cn, asking citizens to contribute suggestions for its legislative work in 2004.

In Beijing, the municipal government has posted a notice on Beijing.gov.cn, soliciting public views on 56 major public undertakings planned for 2004.

According to the OCICP survey, China reports 5,292 online gaming websites and 40.5 percent of the netizens surveyed say that they are always playing online games, 70 percent say China should greatly develop Chinese-made online games, and 75 percent say playing online game does not mean a person will indulge himself init with his enterprising spirit being killed.

Besides chatting and online gaming, the netizens also like to browse news and listen to music on the Internet.

Among Chinese cultural websites, at least 7,000 are news websites, 1,000 literature websites, and 5,200 tourist websites, the survey shows.

The number of netizens on the Chinese mainland reached 79.5 million at the end of 2003, up 34.5 percent over a year earlier, according to a report issued by the China Internet Network Information Center on the 13th survey of the development of the Internet in China.

Computers linked to the Internet had reached 30.89 million by the end of 2003, up 48.3 percent, said the report.

The center refers to people who use the Internet for more than one hour each week as netizens.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2004)