BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese young people's favorite leisure time pursuit is Internet surfing, the China Youth Daily reported here on Tuesday.

Internet surfing is the number one entertainment choice for most people, the paper said, quoting a survey of 2,952 respondents.

The survey said 81 percent of respondents surf on the Internet in their leisure time, rather than watch TV or read books. Entertainment is changing and young people rely more on the Internet.

The survey showed 43 percent of respondents do not set aside a particular time to read books, 21 percent read before going to sleep, and 12 percent reserve their reading for the restroom.

A report released by the China Juvenile Research Center early this year showed that Chinese youth are reading less and less - the downward trend has continued for five years in a row.

The survey also indicates that young people pay attention to the quality of their leisure time. About 37 percent had one to three hours leisure time per day on average, 36 percent had three to five hours and a lucky minority of 18 percent had more five hours.