The number of Internet users in  this capital of east China‘s Fujian Province has shot up nine times over  the past 18 months.

    At the end of July， the city had 293 ，000 such users， as against  31，000 in early 2000.

    To date ， the local telecommunications department has held 135 Internet  training courses for 4，000 people.

    To enable Internet users to gain more benefits， the telecommunications  department has also conducted a series of preferential activities.

    For example ， users are granted for free a certain amount of time  to get on-line. The time to stay on-line is calculated by the second and  financial inquiries can be made on-line.