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Lengthy quest for newspapers

Zhengzhou’s removal of newsstands frustrates a famous visitor

First person story:

Wang Hongyan, 30, from Changchun, the capital city of Jilin province:

Last month, I was interviewed by the Zhengzhou Daily about my bicycle trip around China.

After the story about me was published on March 28, I tried to buy one copy as a souvenir — but I failed.

Wang Hongyan, 30, from Changchun, the capital city of Jilin province, who visited Zhengzhou in March during his bicycle trip around China.

I started my search at 9 am and I asked people here and there where I could buy a newspaper. No matter where I went in downtown Zhengzhou, including supermarkets and post offices, I could only find two kinds of newspaper, the People’s Daily and the Henan Daily. Even the staff at the post office had no idea where to buy the newspaper.

Some people told me I had to go to the newspaper office to make an annual subscription if I would like to read their newspaper.

Others even suggested that I search for those glass-fronted billboards in the community to read the Zhengzhou Daily.

I had to raise money to continue my traveling in the afternoon, so I stopped searching at around midnight.

I tried to search again the next day. An old man told me to go to a newspaper office. I did as he told but found the newspaper they offered was not the Zhengzhou Daily, the Henan Daily.

I asked many more people and searched for the Zhengzhou Daily’s office building on Baidu. It took me another hour and a half to find the office.

The journalist who interviewed me was absent. His colleague received me and gave me two copies of the newspaper. In total, it took me almost 8 hours to get the newspaper.

It’s beyond my imagination that I would have such an experience in Zhengzhou. Usually when I arrive in a city, I would buy some local newspapers to read before I go to bed to know what was going on there. My experience in Zhengzhou made me feel quite sad.

As a province with such a profound culture and history, I think Henan’s modern civilization is defective. I thought it should be quite easy to find a news booth, just as it would be anywhere else, but it was not.

In my hometown, newspapers can be found here and there on the street.

I have been traveling for 3 years and have been to 22 provinces or autonomous regions, and it was the first time I failed to buy a copy of a newspaper. Usually you are at least able to buy newspapers in the post office.

Newspapers can be a “window” for a city, especially for outsiders. I think newspaper booths are seriously needed inZhengzhou. Why did they demolish them?

Wang told his story to China Daily reporter Hou Liqiang.

Hou Liqiang and An Baijie contributed to this story.