Fully booked out

The Beijing Book Building and other large bookstores have reaped a windfall in extra revenue since opening special stalls for Olympic books.

To further entice visitors, the Wangfujing Xinhua Bookstore, located in arguably the most bustling commercial area in central Beijing, has installed huge LED screens and put up colorful posters to highlight its special zone for Olympic books.

"It is vital for us to grab visitors' attention as soon as they step into the bookstore," says marketing manager Ge Fei.

Wangfujing Xinhua has opened counters for Olympic-related gifts and souvenirs and a 60-sqm special area for Olympic-related books with more than 1,000 titles for sale.

"The 2008 Olympics has offered a great opportunity for Chinese publishers," says Liu Binjie, head of the State Administration of Press and Publishing. "Since China is the host country and Beijing the host city, Chinese people want to know more about the Games.

"The Olympics is more than a mega sports event. It is a movement, a culture that symbolizes the ideal of peace, harmony and prosperity among human beings. I believe the books can help readers learn about the Olympics from various perspectives."

Bookstores in other cities have also benefited from Olympic fervor. In the last six months alone, the Heze Book Mansion in Shandong has sold more than 40,000 Olympic books.

"The best-selling books are previews of the Beijing Olympics, general histories of the Games and the Olympic Spirit," says Heze sales manager Chang Xin.

Over the past month, major bookstores in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, have reportedly sold more than 100,000 titles about the Olympics but this is misleading - most are for young readers, such as cartoon book series about Fuwa, the Beijing Olympics mascot's adventures in previous Olympic Games.

Liu Yan, a marketing manager with the Zhongguancun Book Mansion, reckons the most popular Olympic books are ones for children, guide books and maps for tourists coming to Beijing during the Olympics and those on the history of the Games.

Liu estimates books sales have witnessed a staggering 75 percent growth this year.

China has so far published more than 1,000 Olympic books but some readers are still not satisfied.

"I have been to several big bookstores but have failed to find a single guidebook that offers a detailed, bilingual introduction to the newly constructed Olympic venues with clear pictures," says Wang Liming, an overseas Chinese from the United States.

Wang is now gathering materials for his friends back home. "I want to share my Olympic experience here in China with them," he says. "Well-compiled English-Chinese books are what I am looking for.

"So far, though, I have only found a set of maps with small icons of Olympic venues and bilingual explanations.

"Yes, there are many new books with English explanations about Beijing's history, culture and the Games. But the English versions are too simple and short, or obviously 'Chinglish' with grammatical errors."

(China Daily 07/30/2008 page18)