China's southern tech hub of Shenzhen launched its annual month-long reading festival on Tuesday, with more than 2,200 cultural activities lined up, including lectures, book donations and celebrity recommendations for must-read books.

The Shenzhen Reading Month has been held each November for the past 20 years, causing UNESCO to name the city a global model for the promotion of reading. This year's event aims to promote its development vitality and cultural charm, according to the organizers.

CITIC Press Group, a Beijing-based publisher and the guest of honor at the event, will hold over 50 cultural activities and invite well-known authors to meet and share their insights with readers in Shenzhen, according to Wang Bin, the company's chairman.

Since the festival was launched in 2000, reading has become part of everyday life of the city's residents, thanks to government promotion and the local people's appetite for knowledge.

Over the past two decades, more than 160 million people have participated in the festival, with over 8,800 reading and cultural activities held.

The second Shenzhen Book Fair, which coincides with this year's reading month, is scheduled to run between November 27 and December 6.

(Cover: Readers at Shenzhen Library, Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, April 23, 2020. /CFP )