More new bookstores will emerge along Beijing's Second Ring Road

Beijing, 10 Aug (Xinhua) -- Walking into Hepingli North Street in Beijing's Dongcheng District, the Codeword Bookstore is located in a science and technology and culture park transformed from the old factory building of the Far East Instrument Company.

The Codeword Bookstore is not large, and the founder of the bookstore, Li Suwan, has worked hard to crammed into 40 seats, and all of them carry square tables. She has tried every set of tables and chairs, the standard is "to read books, code words can be comfortable"; the overhead lamp exceeded the budget twice, she still insisted on buying it, "the light should be soft and comfortable"... Everything here is for a goal: to let the reader sit down and read, rather than buying and leaving.

The advantage of real space is a vivid, interactive experience. Li Suwan insists on organizing several cultural activities on the second floor every week, sometimes immersive dramas, film screenings, sometimes book clubs, salons, and diverse themes and forms have a common direction: the exchange and collision of interesting ideas. "In code word people, buying books is not the most important, reading books is more important. Just as important as reading a book is the exchange of interesting ideas. Li Suwan said.

However, the space for book lovers to sit down and read with peace of mind, and the cultural place where ideas can be exchanged face-to-face, means higher rent and labor costs, and most bookstores cannot afford a venue with superior geographical location and space conditions. But in 2018, Li Suwan realized the dream of "opening a bookstore" in this space of more than 200 square meters on the upper and lower floors of the second ring road of Beijing, and has gained a firm foothold in the operation of these years, forming a distinctive feature.

This is due to the continuous support of Beijing as a public culture construction in recent years, and relevant departments have continued to introduce policies and invest funds; especially in the context of the new crown epidemic, the first time is to bail out enterprises, actively coordinate resources inside and outside the industry, promote enterprises to change their business methods, and promote physical bookstores to accelerate the pace of transformation and upgrading, integration and innovation.

In the future, there are more and more special physical bookstores such as codeword bookstores on the second ring road of Beijing , a few days ago, the Dongcheng District of Beijing released relevant documents, aiming at the pain points and difficulties of bookstore industry operation, with four categories and 19 specific policies to provide support in terms of space docking, service optimization, publicity and marketing, drainage and income increase. This is also the first special support policy in Beijing to create conditions for bookstores to enter business circles, communities, parks and buildings.

Xue Hongfeng, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Dongcheng District CPC Committee, introduced that Dongcheng District proposed a spatial docking mechanism, the establishment of a physical bookstore development alliance, the provision of financial assistance, the cultivation of the "City of Books" live broadcast base, the construction of a 5G smart book city and other measures to build a new cultural scene, optimize the new cultural space, and cultivate new cultural consumption. By guiding physical bookstores to cooperate across borders in layout site selection, decoration design and other links, cooperating with urban renewal and transformation, incubating "net red punch card places", etc., encouraging new formats of "bookstore +", and creating new cultural scenes with "experiential" and "participatory".

In order to reduce the burden on operators, Dongcheng District will also set up projects such as "one-time start-up incentives", "one-time rewards for continuous operation", "quality improvement incentives" and "special service incentives" to optimize "stock" and strengthen "increments", encourage the physical bookstore industry to seek change and innovation, and promote high-quality development.

At present, Beijing has 200 special bookstores and 1994 physical bookstores. More and more featured bookstores are strung together, accelerating the construction of a "15-minute reading circle" while densely weaving the city's book landscape.

"The most positive reviews we received on public reviews are 'comfortable environment' and 'rich atmosphere', where people prepare for the exam and people think or relax here." Li Suwan introduced that the "neighbors" around the three or five kilometers of the codeword bookstore are regular customers of the bookstore, "A while ago, a member who came every day announced that he had just been admitted to the Chinese opera. I think this is the 'highlight moment' of the bookstore. ”

At the same time, a number of small and beautiful physical bookstores, such as the Cloth Bookstore, the More Reading Club, the Chunfeng Academy, and the New Bookstore, have also bloomed in and around the second ring road of Beijing, embedding the daily lives of citizens.

For book lovers, there is no such thing as living next to a bookstore. Book friend Ari said: "The bookstore opened in front of the house has changed the texture of life a lot. Book friend Yu Dingshi said: "Put down the mobile phone, pick up the book, and your own time will really begin." ”

At present, the territory of Books in Beijing is expanding. In Qianmen Nanxiaoshun Hutong, a street of physical bookstores is about to be completed. After completion, the integration of diversified formats such as "bookstore + catering", "bookstore + cultural tourism" and "bookstore + drama" will make the ancient hutong gain new vitality.

Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph