Showing the determination of the retired Chinese population not to be left out of the computer boom, a web-page designing contest in Shanghai targeted exclusively for the over-50 has attracted over 5,000 entries, according to the organizer on Tuesday.

The contest is aimed at encouraging more and more senior citizens in Shanghai to learn more about the Internet, said Ma Haitao, executive vice secretary-general of the Shanghai Internet Services Association, a non-governmental organization.

Participants are expected to submit their work to the organizer by Nov. 25. A period of on-line voting will follow with the results published on Nov. 30, Ma said.

Finalists will receive free training on web page designing and the eldest participant will be awarded "The Most Senior Participant" honorary title, he said. It is expected that more elderly people will sign up for the contest by the end of October deadline, he added.
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"We elderly people should improve ourselves with the Internet to shorten the distance between us and the young people," said 60-year-old participant Wang Zhiqiang.

The contest has won the support of the local government authorities concerned, such as the Shanghai Municipal Informatization Commission. With about 30 million personal web pages, China can give elderly people a necessary pulpit to explore web-designing as Shanghai's over-60 population accounts for 2.6 million out of the city's population of 17 million, according to Ma.

(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2006)