This year, “City of Literature” Nanjing won its another new title in the 2021 “New Age Cup” Chinese bookstore annual salute activity hosted by The Books and Periodicals Distribution Association of China (BPDAC). According to Ai Limin, President of BPDAC, specialty bookstores and boutique bookstores have mushroomed in Nanjing in recent years. Offline bookstores have become a brilliant window and cultural card of this “City of Literature”. Therefore, Nanjing deserves the title of Chinese “City of Bookstore”.
How many brick-and-mortar bookstores does Nanjing own as the “City of Bookstore”? The answer is nearly a thousand. These bookstores, as the city’s cultural landmarks, bear the reading needs of citizens and reflect the cultural characteristic of Nanjing. As Nanjing is growing, its bookstores have entered urban and rural communities, universities and cultural museums. Meanwhile, they also take up their residence at outskirts and integrate with Nanjing’s rivers and mountains, thus bringing out the best in the city ethos.
Nanjing’s bookstores are superior not only in quantity but also in their design quality. Plenty of Instagrammable places attract young people across the country. Up to now, 20 bookstores in Nanjing have received the title of “Most Beautiful Bookstore of Jiangsu Province”, making Nanjing the city with the most such bookstores in Jiangsu.
For people in Nanjing, buying books in a physical bookstore is as convenient as buying goods in 7-Eleven near their home. You can find a bookstore at any corner in Nanjing. The bookstores scattered around communities have integrated into community culture and become a part of residents’ life. According to relevant administrators, there are 100 public cultural and recreational stations in total in the “Meet at Corner” project. These stations, integrated dynamically with cultural museums, tourist attractions, historical streets and cultural industry quarters, have become a splendid landscape demonstrating the “special and delicate, the best of Nanjing” charm of Qinhuai District.
