The number of Chinese Internet users rose to 111 million at the end of 2005, an increase of 17 million from a year ago, a Xinhua report, quoting a government agency, said.
The report said statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that 8.5% of Chinese people use the Internet for at least one hour each week. The ratio, however, remains behind the global level of 15.2%, the report said.
The report further said data from the CNNIC also reveal that 64.3 million Chinese Internet users have broadband access to the Internet, up 50.2% from a year ago.
However, there exists a wide gap between Internet use in cities and rural areas, the statistics show.