Chinese fans are putty in Potter's hands

BEIJING - Although China's diehard Harry Potter fans will have to wait until early August for the final film in the series, which premiered in London on July 7, they can already talk to their icon online.

Emma Watson, the lead actress in the Harry Potter films, opened a Weibo account, the Chinese version of twitter, on Friday and had more than 30,000 fans in six hours.

"We're glad to have Emma join us, because she has so many fans in China," said Zhang Han, director of Chinese web portal Sina.com.cn's entertainment channel.