Pingtan Times, the only official newspaper owned by the local government of Pingtan county, reached another milestone on Oct 31 with the launch of its WeChat account.

WeChat is a popular instant messaging service of the Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Limited, and the company announced in January that it had 300 million users.

The newspaper will offer a daily news wrap-up to its WeChat followers who will be able to send feedback – by text, images and other methods – and thus interact with the editors.

Members of the public can follow Pingtan Times on WeChat by scanning a QR code, searching for the public account "Pingtanshibao" or "pttimes".

The newspaper has been active in expanding its brand on social networking sites, and the Weibo account opened in late 2011 has attracted nearly 16,000 followers.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Niva Whyman