Due to rising rents, competition for online book retailers, and the changing reading habits of the Chinese people, physical bookstores in the country have either closed down or relocated to remote locations. In 2015, however, brick-and-mortar bookstores have started to make a comeback, according to an article by Shanghai Daily.
In Shanghai, 10 new bookstores, primarily located in downtown areas, opened last year.
Online book seller Dangdang has also unveiled plans to establish 1,000 offline bookstores throughout the country within the next three years.
"Bookstores are coming back, but in a different form," said Sun Ganlu, vice chairman of the Shanghai Writers' Association, in an interview with Shanghai Daily. "After a very difficult period, bookstores have transformed themselves to stay in tune with the times." Sun also serves as the main curator of the book market and reading club in Sinan.
Bookstores are not only experiencing a revival in China. Amazon just opened its first brick-and-mortar bookshop last November in Seattle. Another bookstore in San Diego is scheduled to open this year. According to Amazon, the company still plans to open 400 more Amazon Books outlets.
It's a slow progress, with offline bookshop sales increasing by 3.2 percent in 2014, but fans of the printed word are optimistic that other areas in China will catch up with the trend.
If changing habits caused physical bookstores to close down, it's also changing habits that are causing more offline bookstores to pop up.
"Of course, I like the big discounts for books online," said Viktor Xu, a 31-year-old avid reader. "But after awhile, I realized I also missed the fun of rummaging through piles of books in a shop and finding interesting things to read. You can't really do that effectively online."
"You are so easily diverted by all that stuff that it's easy to lose the simple pleasure of spotting an intriguing cover on the shelves, flipping through the pages and realizing it is a book you want to take home and read," he added.