Web surfing is booming in China.  The New York Times and CNN.com reported Friday that China recently surpassed the U.S. to become the world's biggest Internet population. 

In June, there were 253 million people online in China, the government reported Friday.  The new figures indicate that China's Internet population grew by 56% in the last year. 

In comparison, the stories noted that the U.S. had approximately 223.1 million Internet users in June, according to Nielsen Online.