Xinhua reports China has upgraded its first national network for access to Internet with a total investment of CNY130 million. China's system was originally put in place in 1994 and the current network covers about 20 provincial areas through optical fiber and digital circuit.

Yan Baoping, director of Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, says in the report that the upgrade increases the transmission speed of the network, which currently reaches about a million end-users, primarily researchers and academics.

The network, known as CSTNET, was the original system arranged in China to allow academics to get worldwide Internet access.