Related News
Innovative environment a magnet for bookworms
Print Edition
KNOWN as Shanghai’s most beautiful bookstore, Zhongshu Pavilion was named after the Chinese scholar Qian Zhongshu (1910-98), who lived in Songjiang.
The bookstore recently opened a downtown branch in the Reel department store in the Jing’an District.
“It provides busy city people a quiet place to get recharged or to enjoy a moment of peace,” said Jin Hao, the bookstore’s director.
The design work for the Reel branch was complicated. After several blueprints, the final design featured Shanghai elements in each of the store’s details.
Street scenes were the main theme of the design, with zebra crossings painted on the floors, bookshelves shaped like tall buildings and streetlamp-like fixtures for lighting. Park benches were installed for those wishing to browse through books.
“The Shanghai street scenes are cleverly condensed in the bookstore,” Jin said. “We wanted to tell people that you can be in the busiest of places and still find solace in books.”
Zhongshu Pavilion opened its first store in Songjiang’s Thames Town in 2013, and quickly gained notoriety as a bookshop as interesting to experience as it was to browse. It offered a wide and diverse collection of books, combined with an area for children, reading salons and a café. At a time when other bookstores were struggling to stay open because of rising rents and online retail competition, Zhongshu Pavilion defied the naysayers.
In January, Zhongshu Pavilion opened a second branch in Minhang District, and months later it opened shops in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province and Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
