People visit the newly-opened Zhongshuge bookstore in Beijing on June. 23, 2019. The store is the latest branch of Zhongshuge, a Chinese bookstore brand known for its elegant and interesting designs. (Photo: China News Service/ Zhao Yadan)

Over the past decade, the bookstore business in China took a hard hit from the country’s ever-fast-growing e-commerce industry to such an extent that many stores had to shut down. 

In recent years, things were beginning to look up as many bookstores found new ways to thrive, but then came the unexpected outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Xiang Aiqun, head manager of the Zhongshuge bookstore in Beijing, often called the most magical bookstore in the capital by visitors, told the Global Times on Tuesday that despite the fact that millions of people returned to work on Monday after the extended holiday, she still hasn’t been able to open for business. 

Zhongshuge is a popular bookstore chain in China known for its unique, elegant and intriguing interior design with about 20 stores across the country. The design savvy bookstore chain  opened its largest branch in Beijing on June 23, 2019.

With fully-filled bookshelves overlooking a mirror-like floor and a zigzagging designed staircase that makes people wonder where it leads to, Zhongshuge in Beijing soon became a hit and has been attracting a flood of bookworms, design enthusiasts and visitors who enjoy taking selfies. 

“If Hogwarts exists, this is what it must be like,” commented a visitor on China’s TripAdvisor-like review platform Dazhongdianping. 

“Technically we are open for business, as we [staff members] are working in the store now,” said Xiang. 

“But readers can’t get in the building complex that our store is located in. Many readers have reached out to us regarding this, but there’s nothing we can do given the complex’s no-visitors- allowed rule.”

Xiang was very understanding since she considers winning the battle against the virus more important than anything. 

“All physical stores are taking a hard hit. It’s not just bookstores. Maybe the impact will last till the latter half of this year. Even if the epidemic is over, it probably will still take some time for people to return to public spaces like bookstores.”

For bookstores which have successfully managed to stay open, the situation hasn’t been very successful either. Sinan Books, a bookstore housed in Sinan Mansions, a historic landmark in Shanghai, opened its doors again on Monday. Staff stood outside, wearing masks, ready to welcome visitors the minute they opened. However, there were only fewer than five visitors throughout the entire morning, reported an article by news outlet thepaper.cn.

The article also noted that Yuan Yang, head manager of the Zhongshuge branch in Shanghai’s Jing’an district, launched a livestream for selling books on February 4. However, sales fell far short of their usual business, not even meeting 10 percent of the store’s usual performance. The average number of daily visitors to the store is about 20, said Yuan.

“We are coming up with strategies such as livestreaming sales or selling books through online stores. However, we are still trying to figure out the details, since we want to do it right. With the funding and resources of the Zhongshuge chain, things will be much more effective. So we are trying to do this together,” said Xiang.

Xiang emphasized that the focus at this stage will surely be online sales. 

“We do have an official WeChat account, but that has been mainly for notifying visitors of events in the stores. Maybe we will expand our sales approach online by selling books there.”