Novel concept: China’s spellbinding bookstores draw selfie snappers

TIANJIN – 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 pre-pandemic levels, data shows, despite the 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 in January 2025. “A wave of bookstores with unique characteristics” has emerged, added Mr Ai Limin.

On social media, Tianjin’s Zhongshuge, which opened in September 2024, draws comparisons with boy wizard Harry Potter’s Gothic Hogwarts school in the film series.

“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-coloured stairs, which extend into massive three-storey 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,” added Mr 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”.

In June 2025, a bookstore in the eastern city of Nanjing that had become a tourist hot spot posted a notice banning flash photography, tripods, loitering and photo shoots staged without permission.

The non-stop pictures at Librairie Avant-Garde “interfered with reading”, said finance worker Yuan Jia, who is from Nanjing and an avid reader.

But Mr Zheng said bookstores curating photo-taking spaces should be encouraged. “At least people are ‘punching in’ at bookstores, instead of doing that elsewhere.”

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 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,” Ms Hu said. “There must be other things.” AFP

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