Tianjin, China ¨C Towering accordion steps and a fantastical spiral staircase greet visitors to a massive bookstore in northern China¡¯s Tianjin, where its striking interior is a bigger draw for selfie snappers than scholars.
Sales of hard-copy books across the country have failed to bounce back to prepandemic levels, data shows, despite authorities¡¯ efforts to boost domestic consumption and an e-commerce boom.
Yet in recent years the number of physical bookshops has ¡°maintained steady growth,¡± the head of a publishing industry group said last January.
¡°A wave of bookstores with unique characteristics¡± has emerged, Ai Limin said.
Tianjin¡¯s Zhongshuge, which opened in September 2024, on social media draws comparisons to Harry Potter¡¯s gothic Hogwarts.
¡°The photos come out looking really beautiful,¡± said graduate student Li Mengting, who stepped inside to snap some pictures when visiting the city with a friend.
But the 24-year-old, wearing a fuzzy cropped parka and a matching shoulder bag, struggled to find the perfect spot because there were ¡°truly a lot of people inside,¡± she said.
Tourists wielding selfie sticks and tripods thronged the central cobalt-colored stairs, which extend into massive three-story columns that arch onto the ceiling.
Faded prints that read ¡°The Best Spot for Photos¡± were plastered on the ground.
Some bookstores in China now invest in creating interiors meant to be photographed, said Beijing-based architect Zheng Shiwei.
¡°This has become relatively mainstream,¡± said Zheng, whose firm the China Architecture Design and Research Group is also involved in bookstore projects.
But, he warned, ¡°that might lead to a lot of people going not just for the purpose of reading, which may result in some unintended consequences.¡±
Last June, a bookstore in the eastern city of Nanjing that had become a tourist hot spot posted a notice banning flash photography, tripods, loitering and photoshoots staged without permission.
The nonstop pictures at Librairie Avant-Garde ¡°interfered with reading,¡± said finance worker Yuan Jia, who is from Nanjing and an avid reader.
But Zheng, the architect, said bookstores curating photo-taking spaces should be encouraged.
¡°At least people are ¡®punching in¡¯ at bookstores, right? Instead of doing that elsewhere,¡± Zheng said.
At a bookstore in the heart of Beijing converted from a former Taoist temple, dozens of tourists strolled in to browse tables of trinkets and order tea.
¡°Books bring in relatively low profit,¡± said founder Juli Hu, who opened the store in 2024.
She said she welcomes people who take photos to post online and frequently sets up new cultural displays.
¡°Selling books definitely cannot be the core of what sustains an entire bookstore,¡± Hu said.
¡°There must be other things.¡±
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