Empty Shelves, Long Lines as Wangfujing Foreign Bookstore Set to Close
Xiaohongshu, aka RED, China’s answer to Instagram, was alight this week with photos of a massive sale in Beijing Foreign Languages Bookstore in Wangfujing ahead of a potentially fast approaching closure in order for the building the store resides in to be renovated.
Word of the sale has spread to the shop’s Dianping page as well, with most books going for 40 percent off, up until Oct 31.
When we visited the shop on Sep 22, it was like walking into a madhouse: most of the shelves had been cleared of books on the first floor, with lines reaching around the shop and customers having to wait upwards of 20 minutes to check out, according to a few shopgoers we heard from.
Bookstore staff told the Beijinger that the store will be closing it's doors anytime from October to the end of this year. Once they close, the entire complex will be torn down and reconstructed, a process that staff told us is expected to take two year's time.
Everything above the second floor has been closed off, and the second floor of the shop has been all but picked clean. In the Spittoon Book Club WeChat group, a number of members who had gone to the shop the night before to peruse the selection were surprised at what they’d found, with some expecting the bookstore to be cleared out entirely by Friday.
Along with contemporary and classic novels, the store also boasts a large amount of English teaching books, children’s books, and other things, so it’s best to head there soon while the picking is still good.
Got any fond memories of Wangfujing Foreign Languages Bookstore? Let us know in the comments!
Beijing Foreign Languages Bookstore (Wangfujing Branch)
235 Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng District
东城区王府井大街235号
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BauLuo
Submitted by Guest on Thu, 09/22/2022 - 22:52 Permalink
Re: Empty Shelves, Long Lines as Wangfujing Foreign Bookstore...
Lert me state, from the outset, that I believe in the concept of reincarntion. I have had enough experiences, where I meet somone but I know that i alredcy know that person. Eyes meet. I know these eyes. We know each other., Doestn't happe often, but it does happen. And I am not an airy=fairy fluffy thingking kinda guy. But I can't denounce experience.
BauLuo
Submitted by Guest on Thu, 09/22/2022 - 18:06 Permalink
Re: Empty Shelves, Long Lines as Wangfujing Foreign Bookstore...
aiya, tianya, first we gots people dying from a fake pandemic which don.t and never existed then we gots people with empty bookshelves, is the apocallisp nigh. ( remember `apocololisp' means inability to sibililantly be sibiilant. I think I have evaddd the bots, but it took some frankincense.
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