The bright and capacious frontier intelligent reading room in Putian, Fujian province [Photo by Shen Weibin/for chinadaily.com.cn]

We arrived at the intelligent reading room in the police station of Dongzhuang village, Putian, Fujian province on a cold and rainy day. However, the students in the reading room were not influenced by the bad weather at all, being immersed in the world of books.

With an investment of 700,000 yuan ($111,376), the intelligent reading room was donated by the local entrepreneurs who opened their hearts to repay their hometown. Over 8,000 books in more than 10 categories are collected in the room.

A pilot site of the provincial frontier corps' "Book fragrance of Fujian frontier" cultural project, the room was planned and designed as two floors of a total 148 square meters, divided into seven functional areas for administration, reading, collection, sharing, electronic reading, audio and video, and discussion. It's the largest intelligent reading room and has the most complete functions of any in Fujian province.

Not limited to the police, the reading room can be freely accessed by migrant workers, primary and secondary school students and Party members, satisfying the spiritual and cultural needs of the people and the police in remote areas.

Unlike normal reading rooms, this one offers an online electronic experience with Wi-Fi and cloud service. Using their smart phones to scan the QR codes on the bookshelves, people can easily read books online.

My media partner experienced borrowing books from the intelligent reading room. The Book Management System integrates current advanced technologies such as face recognition, certificate scanning, intelligent comparison and code scanning, making the process totally self-service.

It took no more than 15 seconds to go from registration to having the book in our hands. The time is shortened to 5 seconds if you are a member of the room.

Sometimes, the police station organizes thematic cultural activities in the reading room, such as recommending new books and writing Spring Festival couplets.