The newspaper was innovative: It used new printing technologies, sent a military correspondent to cover the Sino-French War in Vietnam in 1884 and used vernacular ("baihua")" Quickly it got the reputation of being one of the best newspapers in China. It was bought by a Chinese in 1909. In the early 20th century it had a circulation of 30.000 copies a day. 9.000 of them in Shanhai, and the rest was for other parts of China. "By the early 1920s its circulation was 50,000; by the end of the decade 100,000; and by the mid 1930s, 150,000."