A: You are listening to 'Listeners Garden'. With just four days to go before the New Year, it's almost time for us to say goodbye to 2008 and usher in another new year.

B: During the New Year, we'll continue trying our best to bring you as many informative and interesting programs as possible.

A: And we hope you will continue extending your support to us.

B: Here we want to announce a few changes to our programs. Starting from the New Year, our weekend music program 'China Beat' will be replaced by a new feature program known as Heartbeat.

A: My colleague Xu Weiyi is the producer of Heartbeat. She's here to tell us more about the new program. 
 
B: Thank you Weiyi. I hope our listeners will enjoy your new program.

A: And in the New Year, we'll also make some changes to the format of our weekly programs 'CRI Roundup' and 'Reports from Developing Countries'. You're invited to tune in and tell us what you think of them.

B: Yes, your opinions are always greatly appreciated and welcomed.

A: Another thing I want to tell you is that the 'Beyond Beijing' team is now building a photo wall for our listeners on their website at cribeyondbeijing.com.

B: So if you are interested in sharing your photos with other listeners worldwide, you are welcome to send them to beyondbeijing@cri.com.cn.

A: We look forward to your contributions. Now let's take a look at some letters from our listeners. Our old friend Eric Walton from Canada says:
"Many thanks for the news about the photo wall. I wish you every success with it. I am sure many other listeners will contribute to this."

B: Eric continues: "We here in Vancouver are having an unusual cold spell for this time of the year, with local temperatures below zero and snow too. However, it's nice to see some snow at Xmas Time. At this time of the year I want to send my very best wishes to all at CRI. My thanks for the excellent programming over the years and the dedication of the CRI staff. May peace and prosperity be with you all today, tomorrow and in the future."

A: Thank you Eric for your sweet wishes, and also for your attention to CRI throughout the years. Next, we have Peter Mattice from the US.

B: "Personally I would like to thank the CRI staff who have taken me under their wings over the past two years since becoming your program monitor. I consider all the CRI staff to be my good friends. You make me feel like china is my second home. Thank you for everything you have done and everything you have sent to me."

A: You are very welcome, Peter, and we should also thank you as well for your support for our work.

B: Yes, we appreciate your help very much in monitoring our programs so we know what improvements we should make.

A: Next, Cameron Archbold is also from the US.
"For the past few years I have received the 'Messenger' via the post. I find the magazine very informative and the photography is so beautiful. I am saving every issue, because I think it would be a shame to throw a single one away. I would urge every CRI listener to become a 'Messenger' reader and collector too. I hope you will continue to keep my name on the 'Messenger' subscriber list in the New Year."

B: Glad to hear from you, Cameron, and thanks for your interest in the 'Messenger magazine'.

A: Of course we'll keep sending you the magazine in the New Year, and we hope you can keep on writing to tell us what you think of the magazine and our broadcasting.
B: And here we have Joshua Kingkpa from Liberia:
"I'm writing to you just to say many thanks for your hard work. I have been listening to CRI since 1977. I'm very glad that you have now made it easy for us to listen to your broadcasts on several FM frequencies throughout our country. I do wish you all a prosperous New Year."

A: Hi, Joshua, thanks for being with us for so long. It's also a great pleasure for us to expand our programs into Liberia via FM broadcasting.

B: With easier access and better reception quality, we hope more people in your country can enjoy our shows.

A: And now moving on to Mrefe Akpotu from Nigeria.
"I am writing to you after a break of over a month due to my poor health. I have suffered a serious illness. Despite that, I still tuned into CRI and encouraged other club members to do the same. As usual the reception condition is excellent and your program content is very useful for us to keep abreast with the latest events in China and worldwide. I hope God will bless you all at CRI."

B: Hi, Mrefe, we are terribly sorry to know about your health problems. But your dedication to CRI is very much appreciated and we're happy to know that our programs bringing you so much pleasure. We sincerely hope you make a full recovery as soon as possible.

A: Yes, please take care. We wish you happiness and good health in the New Year.

B: And the last letter for today is from Russian listener Dmitry Tychinin.
"It's such a pity that CRI English doesn't have a song-request program on shortwave. Might it be possible for you to have a new program dedicated to playing song requests? I am sure it will be popular with music-loving CRI fans worldwide!"

A: Thank you very much, Dmitry, for your suggestion. We'll take it into consideration in our future program planning. But I'm sorry that we don't have such a program right now. So if you and other listeners have any song request, you can always write to 'Listeners Garden'. We'll try to meet your request in our show.

B: And that's all we have for today's Letterbox. Now it's time for a short break. Please stay tuned.