Reading into an online age

Physical bookstores in China look set to live out their last days even as their cyber counterparts expand on the back of imported offerings, reports Yang Yang in Beijing.

On a Saturday morning in Beijing's Wangfujing Street, the Foreign Language Bookstore sported a banner to promote its "big summer exhibition of imported books".

Staff members on the ground floor tried to sell an Oscar-movie collection to customers. The most eye-catching shelves stocked best-selling novels of blockbusters such as The Hobbit and Twilight; best-sellers like Eat, Pray, Love and The Time Traveler's Wife; and classics like Jane Eyre and Romeo And Juliet.