The theme of this year's book fair was "Broadening Reading Fields, Upgrading Language Abilities."

About 370 companies from the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and Egypt participated in the fair, offering a wide range of books on finance, literature, history, business, travel and lifestyle.

A series of cultural lectures will be held for ordinary citizens and readers during the book fair and seminars to promote new books will also be held during the event.

The Hong Kong Book Fair was first held in 1989 and has become an important cultural activity for Hong Kong people and a platform for exchanges between publishers across Asia.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2002)