China's one-child policy: Your stories

China has decided to end its decades-long one-child policy, according to reports from the Xinhua news agency.

Chinese people both in the country and abroad have contacted the BBC with their reactions to the latest developments.

Keyou in Singapore emails:

I am a senior high school student from China. I think it's a good news for most of us. At primary school most of my classmates - including me - were only children and many of us wanted to have a sibling.

My cousin was a second child, and my aunt and uncle were heavily fined. But I think the one-child policy was quite effective and benefited China in the past few decades. In my grandparents' generation, they usually had big families with around five to 10 kids, some might be more than that.

Nowadays most of the people in China would prefer to have between one and three kids - except for some rural areas. Because of the cost of living and raising a child is higher than before, people would not want to have too many kids. So I think it's the right time to change this policy.

Rui Chu in Henan Province, China emails:

I'm a supporter of the one-child policy but now our country has an ageing population problem. At the same time, our population is still quite large. It's a really difficult decision.

Xuefei Zheng in the UK emails:

Xuefei Zheng wishes she had siblings to help look after her family in China

Great news! I am a Chinese national married to an English man. I am an only child myself. My parents loved kids but they could only have me because of the threat of losing their jobs if they had more.

I felt lonely growing up by myself. My parents tried their best by having my cousins over and sending me to my cousins for a day but I always wished I had sisters and brothers.

Now my parents are over 50 and my grandparents are living with them. I want to be able to help my parents too but it will be hard to make them move all the way to the UK and give up their life and friends in China.

My husband is very understanding of the Chinese culture and we are working hard now to save money to begin our own family. If we are blessed, I will definitely have more than one child.

@niphette tweets:

Linda Wang in Australia emails:

This is a good news for us. My husband and I have not had a baby even though we are already over 30. We are considering having babies abroad rather than in China. Anyway, it is good news, especially for couples like us.

Layman emails:

It's good news to me - a middle school teacher - who has always dreamed of having a second child.

Tony Wang emails:

I'm a college student from China. I'm an only child and my parents will not have another child. This is because they are in their fifties and the cost of raising a child is too high. This is a highly anticipated result. The one-child policy is unpopular in rural areas where preference to a male child is widespread. This should be abolished. I am glad to hear the news.

Owen in China emails:

This is good news for me and many city dwellers. I have been considering a second child for years but haven't been able to because of the policy restriction. Now the obstacle is removed, it's time to carry on.

Sam Meekings tells the BBC:

Both of my children were born in China to a Chinese mother. My son was given his citizenship documents - but it wasn't so straightforward for baby number two.

According to the one-child policy, she could not get the same documents. This meant she would not be able to attend a state school or move easily from city to city. Luckily, as the child of a British expat she got British citizenship and so could attend an international school.

I have seen how parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents all dote on a single child. Not only is there enormous pressure on these only children to do well in their school exams, but according to tradition they are also expected to look after their parents when they grow old.

So a two-child policy seems to me a perfect compromise. It still aims to keep the population at a stable size, but now the next generation will grow up with a playmate to share with (and fight with!).

Users of the popular Chinese microblogging site, Sina Weibo, have also been reacting.

'Fengde Yiren Shijie' said:

"This policy can only satisfy the super rich and super poor," because "the rich do not worry [financially] about raising more than one child" and "the poor have more children to carry out labour".

'Ai Yueyou' said:

"I am grateful to the party for liberalizing the two-child policy; I can finally have a little sister."

Produced by Dhruti Shah and BBC Monitoring's Kerry Allen