Some busy working couples in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, are leaving their children in local bookstores then picking them up on their way home.

"We're too busy to care for our son on workdays and had to leave him inside a bookstore. It's a safe place for him to spend time on vacation," a mother surnamed Yuan said.

"Of course we welcome the young readers but have to take the consequences of more books possibly being damaged during their reading," a manager surnamed Liu said.