Bookstore stays awake as Beijing goes to sleep

24-hour stores prove a hit, with many finding them to be ideal places to read, work or relax

A bar or a club are perhaps places that people seek out for some peace. Now, they have a third option: a bookstore. Not just a bookstore, but one that is open 24 hours.

Twenty years after the world's first 24-hour bookstore opened in Taipei, known as Eslite Dunnan, similar bookstores sprung up in Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, including the round-the-clock news/magazine stalls in some big cities in the United States.

Beijing, for instance, has seen more such stores opening in recent years, opening up new possibilities for the "night economy".

In Sanlitun, for example, a bustling hub that houses the famous bar streets and international stores, is the Sanlian Taofen Bookstore which is open 24 hours, and has become a landmark since its opening last year.

What was once a bar, has been transformed into a bookstore. One can see young people sitting with their laptops, and engrossed, around desks inside the 700-square-meter store that hosts some 20,000 kinds of books.

"We come here quite often, and it is my best location to wrap up my daily work," said one of them with the surname Zhang, who lives close to the bookstore.

"It is the only quiet place I could find around this area," Zhang added.

Zhao Xiaohan, on a tour of Beijing from Xiamen, Fujian province, said he "accidentally found this place while looking for a perch after a long day of travel". For Zhao, it is a nice place to relax, but "there are many children after dinner time due to the summer vacation".

Besides providing recent and bestselling books, the bookstore also offers titles in ancient Chinese and English editions. It also sells souvenirs and trinkets.

"It contains all book-related stuff you can ever ask for," said Anna, a tourist from Moscow, Russia, who revealed only her first name.

"Before I walked in, I was wondering if the bookstore had closed already. To my surprise, it wasn't," she said. "That's something I haven't experienced before in my country."

The two-story store resembles a busy street, with a spiral staircase leading to the upper floor.

A shop assistant said the design for the store was inspired by Travelers among Mountains and Streams, a painting by Fan Kuan of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).

The staff of the bookstore also narrate stories about the Chinese culture.

It has a cafe that is open until midnight. While some customers order something to drink and fall asleep, there are others who just need a place to "spend the night".

The bookstore chain's general manager Hao Dachao told The Beijing News in April that the store earns 20,000 yuan ($2,900) a day on weekdays and 50,000 yuan on weekends and holidays, and it is making profit.

It opened its first 24-hour bookstore in Beijing near National Art Museum, which earned praise from Premier Li Keqiang. The second such store opened near Tsinghua University in 2015.

"Location is the key," Jiang Jun, manager of the Sanlitun bookstore, said. "We're surviving on book sales, while the others (cafe and souvenirs, etc) account for 10 percent of the total sales," Jiang added. "We can see a clear demand for 24-hour bookstores."

Despite some failed attempts, many 24-hour bookstores are coming up. October Time, located in Zhongguancun, caters to university students and those who run startups. Page One, a three-story bookstore, opened near Tian'anmen Square.

"Students and young entrepreneurs are our targeted customers," Lin Dayang of the managing team of October Time, said.

The China Bookstore Yanchi Building, known for its rare collection of ancient and second-hand books, opened on the midnight of July 20 four years ago.

Even as noise in the nearby Shichahai area had died down, people - both professionals as well as students - were found absorbed in the world of books. One shop assistant and a guard were, whose shifts end at 8 in the morning, were on duty.

Some of the stores have become innovative too. Page One, for instance, holds mini concerts sometimes.

"Challenges for 24-hour bookstores lies in the second half of the night. Solutions include multiple businesses," Zhang Lei, a veteran bookstore planner and critic, said.

"People do a lot of things in bookstores, they bring their families, and meet friends, and view them as 'tourist destinations'," he said.

A similar trend was witnessed in Qingdao, Shandong province. Zhanqiao Bookstore, part of the Xinhua Bookstore Group, invited children to stay overnight at the store on July 24. The kids read books while sitting in tents, made their beds and slept soundly.

In another first in China, a 5G 24-hour unmanned smart bookstore began operations in Xiongan New Area, Hebei province. Book lovers only need to scan their face or ID cards and take their favorite book any time.

Liu Xiaokai, an official with the National Press and Publication Administration, said at a conference in Shanghai in Aug 2018 that the number of bookselling spots had increased in the last three years.

In Beijing alone, 126 new bookstores opened in 2018. The municipal government spent 50 million yuan to back offline bookstores in 2018, and will raise funding to 106 million yuan this year.

A survey by Tencent news channel has shown 8.7 percent of people believe 24-hour bookstores are part of night economy, while 4.3 believe it should be overnight cinemas.

"The night is young, the midnight reading life is so beautiful," said Yang Junkang, from the Beijing Reading Festival, an organization that promotes reading, and who has jointly compiled a guide book on the city's bookstores.

Contact the writers at meijia@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Global 10/09/2019 page3)