BEIJING — China announced its first 80 national bases for promoting reading in families on World Book Day, which falls on April 23.

The bases, covering 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, were announced by the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) at an event for this year’s family reading campaign held in Beijing.

“The event is aimed to encourage children to develop an interest in reading at an early age and make reading more important in family education,” said Song Xiuyan, vice-president of ACWF.

The ACWF also recommended 201 books suitable for family reading with children of different ages.

The ACWF launched the family reading campaign in 2016, and attracted 32 million people in more than 80,000 activities across China in 2017 only.