"[...] this directory is the first of its kind ever published in China, the only reference tool so far available in this respect," says Wang Yi, Advisor to the Bureau of Publishing Administration, Ministry of Culture. It contains 2,353 entries of publishers, booksellers, newspapers and periodicals throughout the country, with information collected through questionnaires to the end of 1983, and a few from early 1984. Information for each entry includes name in both Chinese and English, address, telephone, date founded, subject/s (where pertinent) or whatever brief background information is useful. Listing of publishers and booksellers is by province; of newspapers and periodicals, by subject. Each of the two main categories has its separate index." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 139)