Rural households in China spent an average of just 139.3 yuan (20.30 U.S. dollars) on entertainment last year, People's Daily overseas edition reported.

Ministry of Agriculture statistics show each household spent an average of 348 yuan (50.90 dollars) on cultural-related services in 2008, but that 208.7 yuan (30.50 dollars) of this money was spent on their children's education.

This means rural households spent the remaining money on items like books or films for their personal entertainment.

This represents an increase of just 2 yuan on the 2007 data and the newspaper blamed the economic downturn.

In contrast, spending on entertainment in 2007 grew by 25.6 yuan on the year before.

"My major entertainment is watching TV, and sometimes folk art performances," said Ma Yichang, a farmer from Jiangzhuang village in Shandong province.

"I did not buy a single book, or watch a movie last year."

In Xichen village of Henan province only a few people have access to newspapers and magazines and the Internet is beyond the reach of most villagers. "There is no place to buy a newspaper here," a villager in his 50s said.

The man said he paid 5 yuan and traveled 25 km by bus to another town simply to buy his grandson a reference book.

Neither village has a library or other cultural facilities.

The lack of cultural services in rural areas has presented opportunities for some businesses, including Books-on-the-go which sells truck-loads of books to people in rural areas.

A few provinces and cities, including Yunnan and Shaanxi provinces and Taiyuan and Shenyang cities, have allocated funds to build libraries and other cultural centers.