Most respected writer Bing Xin dies aged 98

China's most respected woman writer Bing Xin died last night at a Beijing hospital, state media reported.

Bing, 98, whose real name was Xie Wangying, 'passed away quietly' at Beijing Hospital, the China News Service reported.

Widely regarded as the grandmother of children's literature, Bing had been in hospital since September 1994.

'Born on October 5, 1900, Bing Xin was China's most famous woman writer of contemporary literature,' the agency said.

Her most famous work, Letters to My Young Readers, was a collection of 29 stories.

It was first published in the 1930s and captured the hearts of millions of children. Bing wrote two more in 1958 and 1978.