The Internet Society of China announced at the First China Netizen Cultural Festival held in Beijing this week that the day September 14 will henceforth be designated as Netizens' Day in China.

The Internet Society of China says that the result of a three-month survey among nearly 500,000 Chinese netizens shows that about 66.8% of Chinese netizens hoped to set up a day made special for netizens.

On September 14, 1987, China sent out its first email: a message sent from China to Germany. Therefore, most of these netizens agreed to choose September 14 as the day for the 290 million Chinese netizens to celebrate the glorious and revolutionary achievements made in China on the Internet. This remarkable feat of sending an email in China — and probably one that was not a spam email, at that — overshadows the unlucky combination of the numbers that combine to make the date for September 14. In Chinese, "9-14" can also mean "just want to die", which is absolutely not what happened to China's Internet, as it has flourished like a hundred flowers blooming.

Zeng Mingfa, executive director general for the Organizing Committee Office of the China Netizen Cultural Festival, says that the activities of this festival will focus on the overall improvement of Chinese netizens' appreciation of the Internet, enhancing the promotion of information communication in the Internet area and disseminating the latest news about the Internet applications used in China.