Ben Blanchard, writer of the Reuters story datelined "HOHHOT" on Monday, met no trouble in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He said he would continue to work there until Wednesday.

Reuters is not the only foreign media that plans to conduct interviews in other parts of China besides Beijing and Shanghai. Takanori Kato, Shanghai bureau chief of Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, said although Beijing and Shanghai are political and economical hubs of China, interviews in other places are still needed to know a whole China.

In the past, he had to do interviews by telephone when something happened outside Beijing and Shanghai as it would have taken at least several days to get official approval to go there.

The new regulations will enable Takanori Kato to travel instantly for news, and "allow the world know quickly what is happening in China," the Japanese journalist said.

Zhang Yongheng, a journalist with the Chinese newspaper People's Daily, said he could feel the pressure and competition since he would see foreign counterparts on the occasions that used to be witnessed only by Chinese journalists before the new foreign media regulations.

China has grown to be the world's fourth largest economy and foreign coverage of China has risen sharply in 2006, said China's top publicity official Cai Wu. The coverage by certain media jumped by 30 percent or 40 percent.

Liu Jianchao, director of the Information Department of Chinese Foreign Ministry, said foreign journalists would enjoy more and more freedom in China, as well as better and better working environment.

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