Hundreds of thousands of Internet users on Monday paid tribute to a girl who committed suicide because of depression a year ago.

The girl, who called herself "Zoufan" on the Internet, hanged herself in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, after leaving a suicide note on the micro-blogging site Weibo.com and triggering heated discussion on depression across the country.

A series of activities were held in Nanjing on Monday to combat depression and raise people's awareness of the condition.

Some mental health experts were invited by the local government to give lectures, and some were asked to communicate with Internet users on depression.

According to the Beijing Psychological Crisis Research and Intervention Center, every year 287,000 people commit suicide in China, while another 2 million consider committing suicide — 70 percent of them because of depression.