However, only 84.6 million - less than one third of the total - are from rural areas, where more than 800 million people of the country's 1.3 billion people live.

While urban residents have enjoyed the convenience of Internet, most farmers are still unfamiliar with computers, and many do not even know how to switch on a computer.

However, the rural market is growing fast with the number of Internet users in 2008 up 60 percent. In better off rural coastal areas, computers are viewed as a necessity when young people get married. Internet cafés have spread from cities to villages and townships and become indispensable for young people.

"Most students and young people can use computers," says Yan Shunli, a Lenovo sales manager in east China's Shandong Province. "Some farmers use computers to find or release market information."

Yan says that due to the popularity of notebook PCs and the economic downturn, the desktop PC market will probably drop in 2008, but he forecasts a 17-percent increase in the township and village-level market in Shandong.

The expansion of telephones, the Internet, and other information technologies into rural areas will give farmers more opportunities to compete in the information age.

Yan says PC makers used to drive caravans to village markets, peddling computers as if they sold vegetables.

"We have confidence that with the supportive policy, we will see through the crisis," says Liu Rengang, of Founder.

Industry insiders say manufacturers face specific challenges in the countryside.

PC makers face a diverse rural market around the country, says Liu. Unlike basic home appliances, such as washing machines and motorcycles, computers are not necessary in everyday life. In China's less-developed west, farmers have little need of computers. Liu says Founder will start to focus on relatively well-off eastern areas.

As rural areas lag behind of cities in terms of infrastructure and education, farmers are more in need of training on how to utilize PCs, and of coordinated Internet services providers building a network with more extensive reach.

"We are prepared to have to invest in order to make a profit," said a statement from Lenovo.

The financial crisis raises other challenges in the rural market. Many export-oriented factories in eastern coastal areas have gone bust, so millions of unemployed migrant workers are returning to their hometowns. Earning a crust takes priority over buying a computer.

"These returning migrant workers are potential customers," says Yan Shunli. "They have to make a living. Computers can broaden their options, by for instance, allowing them to set up their own businesses, selling local specialties online."

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2009)