China's first National Digital Library has been successfully launched. It's expected to become the country's main online information center and service data base. Nine different ideas about how the building should look have been on show at the National Library.

The National Digital Library will cost the government about 150 million US dollars and be a warehouse for books and documents in China for the next 30 years. It will be able to service 8,000 clients one day and create the biggest Chinese-language digital library in the world. It will also have the most advanced web service base in China. People will be able to check information from anywhere and at anytime by surfing on the net.

When the project was launched early this year, 38 architects sent in their designs with nine of them making it through to the second round. The massive project will be completed in 2007. Its backers claim it will advance multi-media in this country as well as China's IT industry as a whole.

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