Premier Li Keqiang visited a bookstore at Xiamen University in Fujian province on April 22, one day ahead of World Book Day, and discussed the benefits of reading with students.

Read every day, the Premier advised the students, as he stressed the lifelong benefits of the habit. The classics of literature and the work of previous generations are a font of knowledge and will broaden their horizons, he said.

Xiamen University was the first university to be founded by an overseas Chinese in the era of modern education. The university was set up in 1921 by Tan Kah-kee, a native of Fujian province who was a celebrated patriotic overseas Chinese leader and an educationist.

The Premier also reviewed the university’s history, spanning more than 90 years, on a tour of its history museum. He also talked to the university’s disciplinary heads about scientific research and academic development.

The Premier asked what was the university’s “secret weapon’’ that allowed it to achieve an employment rate of 97 percent for graduates. He praised the fact that graduates from the university are capable of both attaining a good position in the workforce but are also willing to be flexible to garner experience. University administrators told him that the students were very competitive and the university provided the students with a flexible environment which gave them job-seeking advantages.

A student entrepreneur asked the Premier to write an inscription for his company when he showed Li their credit data center for colleges and universities. The center has already collected data covering more than 6 million college students and benefited from a 20 million yuan ($3.23 million) angel investment. Li said that writing inscriptions violated certain rules but he could leave them some parting words. “I wish the number of your users rises rapidly and I support mass innovation and entrepreneurship,” Li said.