Beijing Bookstore line hand-drawn map
Niche Bookstore
Page one corner of Beijing Fang store
How many bookstores are there in Beijing? The list goes on. Author and book critic Green Tea can be described as a heavy lover of bookstores. In his eyes, these bookstores, old and new, not only have a variety of books inside to fascinate people, but also, together with the surrounding environment, constitute the cultural fabric of Beijing. Along the route he provided, you can not only read books and bookstores, but also see the historical context and style of Beijing. And let's go with him on a book tour.
- Editor
Visiting bookstores is my daily life, in Beijing for more than 20 years, how much shopping is difficult to count. A few days ago, according to the bookstores that I often haunted, I sorted out 5 classic Beijing bookstore roaming routes for the reference of book lovers who also love bookstores.
During the epidemic period, the bookstore industry is facing operational difficulties, some are closed, some are relocated and set up, and after the new reshuffle, they will be integrated into the new ecology of bookstores in the post-epidemic era.
The line | South Luogu Lane to Liulichang
From the subway Nanluoguxiang Station, you can first go to the Nanluo Bookstore on the first floor of the left and right times, which is a new store opened in 2019. In the noisy Area of NanluoguXiang, there should be a quiet bookstore for people coming from the south to stop. There used to be a Park Road Caotang Bookstore here, but unfortunately it has closed.
Go north along the South Luogu Lane, see the Houyuan'en Temple Hutong sign turn right and go east, No. 13 is the former residence of Mao Dun, and No. 7 Courtyard is Chiang Kai-shek's north parallel yuan from 1945 to 1949, which was once the second son of Prince Yi of Qing Dynasty, zaixu Fudi, and was not open to the public. Hutongkou No. 1 Courtyard is a niche bookstore. It is a small poetry bookstore and poetry publishing institution with a large tree at the door to shade the exquisite and elegant courtyard. I have come here many times to do activities, the most recent one was a new book I planned by Suzhou writer Wang Dao, "Tooth Sacrifice Years".
Coming out of the Small Crowd Bookstore, it is recommended to get on a bicycle, along Jiaodaokou South Street, cross Ping An Avenue into the back street of the art museum, turn left into the east street of the art museum, and not far away see the Sanlian Taofen Bookstore. Sanlian Taofen Bookstore can be described as a landmark of beijing's eastern bookstore, which is a typical bookstore run by a publishing house, in addition to the complete triptych edition of books, there are also a wealth of various humanities and social sciences literature and art books. In the past, I used to go to the café on the second floor to chat or talk with friends, and then I stopped by the National Art Museum of China to have a look.
At the intersection of May Fourth Avenue and Wangfujing Avenue, there is a new Guardian Art Center, a self-run art bookstore with a wealth of art books.
Moving further south is Renyi (Capitol Theatre), where the theater bookstore is small and exquisite, with many rare plays and drama theory books. In the past, every time I came to see a play, I would go to the Bubble Drama Bookstore a long time in advance. Note that it is closed every Monday!
Renyi southbound is not far, is the famous Commercial Press, next to the HanfenLou Bookstore, up and down a total of three floors, the first floor is the new book display and coffee area, upstairs is often do some cultural activities and exhibitions, the basement of the book storage is not small, if careful shopping, most of the day is not enough.
Hanfen Building is the library building of the Commercial Press during the Shanghai period, mainly collecting rare books, and was established in 1909. As the collection of books grew larger, in 1924 another five-storey "Oriental Library" was built, and the "Hanfen Building" became its rare book room. The Oriental Library once had a collection of 510,000 volumes, surpassing the Beiping Library to become the largest library in China, but in 1932, together with the printing house, the compilation office and other commercial press industries, they were all destroyed by Japanese artillery fire.
Next to the Hanfenlou Bookstore is the Canran Bookstore, named after Jin Canran, the first general manager of the Zhonghua Bookstore after the founding of the People's Republic of China. This is the reader service department of Zhonghua Bookstore, which specializes in Chinese edition books.
At present, the Commercial Press building used to be the joint office of the Commercial Press and the Zhonghua Bookstore, so the two bookstores are also next to each other. Later, Zhonghua moved to Liuliqiao, where he opened a Bohong Bookstore, whose name comes from Lu Feikui (Zi Bohong), the founder of zhonghua bookstore.
At an intersection to the south, the Tianlun Dynasty Hotel is diagonally opposite, which is the commercial press's newly created composite cultural space - Hanfen Academy, and a "wall of Chinese translation masterpieces" at the door is blind. The college focuses on relevant functions such as conferences, reading clubs, and reading activities, and the overall pattern is high-end and atmospheric, and the regional division is scientific and reasonable.
Continuing southbound is Wangfujing Pedestrian Street. During the Republic of China period, Wangfujing Dong'an Market was a street of famous bookstores in Beijing, dozens of used bookstores were connected into a corridor of old books, and many literati in Beijing wrote reminiscence articles or book trivia of visiting old bookstores in Dong'an Market. This book market continued until the 1980s and 1990s, and many contemporary literati and scholars still remember the experience of book shopping in Dong'an Market when they recall the book market culture in Beijing. Nowadays, Wangfujing Pedestrian Street has become a pure commercial street for tourism and shopping, leaving only two state-owned bookstores, Wangfujing Xinhua Bookstore and Foreign Language Bookstore, and there is no trace of the taoshu.
Next, it is recommended to bypass the crowded pedestrian street, turn right into the South River along the street, and cross Chang'an Avenue to enter Zhengyi Road. There is a Faguan Bookstore under the People's Court Publishing House on Zhengyi Road, and a row of small buildings on the street looks very advanced, and the store is mainly based on political and legal books.
Cross Qianmen East Street, enter the three grass factories, walk along the alley, pay attention to the right hand side, there will be a park suddenly emerging, named Sanlihe Park. The landscape is very peculiar, like an enclave. Anyone who sees it for the first time will be amazed at the noisy front door area and such a quiet and simple hutong landscape. Spring Breeze Is Located by the River, this is a membership-based magazine library, visitors ticket 50 yuan a person, you can sit in the store to read magazines, enjoy the small bridge flowing water reading time.
After the transformation of the hutong, the landscape is somewhat strange, but it also loses its taste. After a walk, come out of the long alley headlines and enter Qianmen Street from the fresh fish mouth. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Qianmen Avenue outside Zhengyang Gate and the surrounding area of Dashilar were the main commercial, entertainment and cultural areas of Beijing, and an important carrier of the history and culture of old Beijing. With the transformation of commercial real estate, this area has been transformed into a new form of commercial body to meet the current tourism needs, but some of the new neighborhoods lack the historical precipitation and cultural atmosphere that can be felt.
There is a high-value pageone bookstore in beijing's Fang neighborhood, and the design and layout of the store are close to the world's top. The modern bookshelf design and overall layout reflect the operator's intentions everywhere, and from the surrounding windows, you can see the Zhengyang Lou City Tower and the Arrow Tower. The perfect blend of bookstores and ancient buildings attracts many people to take photos and punch cards here. In the era of increasingly pursuing appearance, how to lead readers to become the home of reading in bookstores that have been backgrounded, there are still many places worth exploring.
Leaving Beijing Fang and crossing Coal Market Street, you can go to a very literary and artistic alley, Yangmeizhu Diagonal Street. During the Republic of China period, this was a famous cultural street, with six or seven bookstores such as the World Bookstore, Zhongzheng Bookstore, Enlightened Bookstore, Guangyi Bookstore, Universal Bookstore, Dazhong Bookstore, zhonghua bookstore, etc., and it was also a place where the literati of the Republic of China gathered. Shen came from Wen to Beiping and drifted north, and his first stop was at the Youxi Guild Hall at No. 61 Yangmeizhu Xie Street.
Not far from the diagonal street, there is a model bookstore, which is a well-preserved Republic of China building. The owner Jiang Xun is a collector and designer, the selection of books is very exquisite, and many of the cultural creations and notebooks made by himself in the store make people have the desire to buy.
The hutong still has a complete back door of Qingyun Pavilion, and there is a stone plaque of "Qingyun Pavilion" on the door. Qingyun Pavilion is a high-end comprehensive commercial entertainment venue in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, and is known as the four major shopping malls of old Beijing together with the Persuasion Field, Dong'an Market and the first floor of Shoushan, and is a pastime for scribes, officials, merchants and nobles. The Republic of China literati Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, Liang Shiqiu, Shen Congwen, Xu Zhimo, etc. all liked to come here to drink and have fun. It is said that Cai Yi met Xiao Fengxian in Qingyun Pavilion.
At the west end of Yangmeizhu Street, there is a small Zi'an Book Ticket Museum, which is the small shop of Mr. Zi'an, a collector of book tickets, and there are exquisite book tickets from all over the world that he collects, which is very enjoyable to see.
Further west, you will enter Liulichang East Street. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, official kilns were set up here to burn glazed tiles for the construction of the imperial palace. During the period from the Kangxi Dynasty to the Qianlong Dynasty, a cultural street with the essence of antiques was gradually formed, which became the largest book market in Beijing at that time. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the bibliophile Li Wenzao wrote the "Records of the Liulichang Bookstore", which recorded the flourishing scene of the Liulichang Book Industry in the Qing Dynasty; in the fourth year of the Republic of China, the bibliophile Miao Quansun supplemented the "Afterword of the Liulichang Bookstore", adding and supplementing the situation of the Liulichang Book industry in the middle and late Qing Dynasty; during the Republic of China, Sun Dian, the operator of the Liulichang Bookstore and a bibliophile, began to write the "Three Records of the Liulichang Bookstore", which ended in the thirty years of the Republic of China (1940); Sun Dianqi's nephew Lei Mengshui continued the "Four Records of the Liulichang Bookstore". Remember the former Liulichang Bookstore before the public-private partnership from 1940 to 1958. This "Four Notes of the Bookstore" details the history of the book industry that has flourished for more than 200 years in Liulichang.
Today's Liulichang is mostly antique shops, leaving only many branches of China's largest antique bookstore, China Bookstore.
Well, on the first route, we'll stop at the Glass Factory.