Stranger gives fiction

A Chinese proverb says that one can only read a book earnestly when it is borrowed. A booklover in Shanghai is attempting to encourage reading by lending his books freely to strangers on the subway.

It is common to see subway passengers staring at their cellphones instead of reading a real book on their commute.

But Zhou Pan, 27, from Jingmen in Central China's Hubei province, insists on reading real books during his 50-minute journey from Weininglu to Guanglanlu station on Shanghai's metro line 2.