The little red books

Panjiayuan has more than a dozen stands manned by xiaorenshu enthusiasts. For many Chinese, these books take them back into their childhood as they were an integral part of young lives in the 1960s and 70s.

These palm-sized books were to kids then what TV is to kids now.

Children would often go to bookstores, where they sat for hours, absorbed in the fantasy stories and beautiful illustrations of these books.