A free library in a mountain village in Shaoyang, Hunan province, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, offering a place to read and dream.

The Ziqiang Library was founded by 76-year-old Yang Guangxun, who was born in the village. When Yang retired as a government official in Shaoyang in 2002, he and his wife sometimes returned to the village to live.

Yang has been an avid book lover, with more than 200,000 books at his home.

The couple learned that children in the village often had trouble finding books to read, so Yang decided to donate all his books to start the library in August 2003. He hoped that children and adults in the village will enrich their lives through reading.

Over the past 20 years, Yang has donated hundreds of thousands of yuan to buy more books for the library. It has been expanded several times and now stores more than 54,000 books. It has 30,000 visitors every year.

As the couple now live in Changsha, the management of the library has been entrusted to friends and family in the village.

Yang Chengshang, a resident, has managed the library since its founding. He learned about traditional Chinese medicine through reading books at the library and has become a well-known TCM specialist.

At the library's 20th anniversary celebration on Aug 19, a number of children received a Young Book Lover certificate. The certificate is given to children who love reading and are willing to read for a long time, Yang Guangxun said.

Yang Chao, 10, a fifth-grader at a local primary school, was one of the recipients. He said he likes to read children's books at the library and often read with his friends for several hours there.

Influenced by the library, dozens of people in the village have received bachelor degrees; eight have obtained master's or doctoral degrees.

"The best thing in the world is reading," Yang Guangxun said. He has decided to move back to the village with his wife recently to help manage the library.

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