Ma Zhaoxu (right) and Jiang Yu (left) of China's Foreign Ministry speak ahead of the opening of a new press hall. [China Daily]

The Foreign Ministry will move one step closer to its ambition of providing a better service for foreign journalists when it opens a brand-new and technologically sophisticated press hall on Friday.

Located on the third floor of the just-completed South Building of the Ministry and decorated in blue, the press hall will mostly accommodate regular press briefings and small-scale international conferences.

Calling itself the blue hall, the new press hall is twice as large as the old one and offers 140 seats with individual microphone and equipment for simultaneous interpretation of five languages and recording.

The wireless internet service is also available for reporters to send back their stories on the scene.

"It is not only about changing the venue or upgrading hardware," said foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, "The opening of the new press hall in itself is a demonstration that China has come a long way in pursuing a policy of openness to foreign media."

"We will continue to provide comprehensive support and good service to foreign journalists so as to help them have an in-depth and objective knowledge about China across the board." Ma said.

Ma, who is also Director-General of the Information Department of the Ministry, is going to be the first spokesman to stand on the stage of the blue hall and take questions next Tuesday.

China's first press conference was held on March 26, 1982 when the then Director-General of the Information Department with the Foreign Ministry Qian Qichen released news about the relationship between China and the Soviet Union.

Although the five-minutes long press briefing had no question session, it became the focus of global media on the second day.

There was no press hall either at the time and more than 70 journalists from home and abroad just stood around Qian in the entrance hall of the Ministry.

Two months later, Qian was appointed Vice Foreign Minister and his successor Qi Huaiyuan became the first formal spokesman of the Foreign Ministry. And the press conference moved to Beijing International Club.

In 1997, the Foreign Ministry finished its new office building with a press hall which has been put into use till now.

With the changes of the press hall and the development of China's spokesman system, China has been gradually learning how to deal with international journalists and media.

Ma told China Daily that their work, though recognized and commended by more and more foreign journalists, still has room for improvement.

"There is still a long way ahead of us and we will forge ahead while exploring," he said, noting the pressing task now is to play a better role as a bridge of communication so that China and the world will have greater mutual understanding and that China's rich reporting resources can 'seamlessly' meet the various demands from journalists.

"I am convinced that going forward, China's environment for news coverage will be even more open, convenient and media-friendly. It's just like China's reform and opening up. We will keep moving forward with no turning back." Ma added.

Statistics show that a total of 740 foreign correspondents with 410 news agencies from 55 countries are stationed in China by the end of September while the number of foreign journalists was only 43 some 30 years ago. Meanwhile, international stories have touched upon almost every aspect of the daily lives of the Chinese people such as diplomacy, politics, economy, education, culture and etc.

Due to the global financial crisis, many news organizations have downsized overseas correspondents, however, the number of foreign journalists in China, on the contrary, keeps on growing. Some well-known international news agencies, including Reuters, even moved their Asia-Pacific headquarters from cities in other countries to Beijing.

(China Daily October 8, 2010)