The Only Reason to go to Tongzhou
The big mac of book cities the Beijing Publishing Logistics Center, located in Tongzhou district and an hour and a half drive from central Beijing, opened on November 8th. The BPLC is Asia's largest – perhaps the world's – book city and book warehouse. It stretches over 300,000 square meters and houses over 500 state-owned publishers and an estimated 300 private and overseas publishers, including Random House and Penguin.
Designed by Architectural Design Studio and shaped like a figure eight, the book center is jaw-dropping. At its grand opening the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) stated that this, comrades, was a historical moment; and that publishing had the responsibility for cultural development - no kidding.
To be honest, I was more interested in gawping at the largest number of books I’ve ever seen in my life.
You can purchase individual books here, so not only bookshops (who'll buy in truckloads) will benefit from a project that unites almost all of the publishing houses in China. For instance, The Catcher in the Rye in Chinese (published by Jilin Publishing House) is available, which is published alongside other English literature syllabus titles Catch 22 and Great Expectations. Selling for around one British pound each (13 kuai for Catcher), buying these books felt wonderfully homely.
If you don’t dig Holden Caulfield or aren’t interested in how “goddam” and “sonuvabitch” translate into Chinese, perchance the second-hand Chinese and foreign books may interest you, or the foreign publications or peeling antique books. All for bargain market prices, apart from some – such as the glossy hardback picture book detailing the boyhood antics of Deng Xiaoping.
The affiliated book warehouse behind the book center amasses enough books to give print connoisseurs and book lovers a (happy) heart attack. It’s pretty sexy to watch as the conveyor belt transports brand new books to uniformed troopers who stack and label them. Anyone who visits should get a tour of this distribution center.
Idyllic romantic weekend away from the city anyone? There’s a hotel just nearby, and from what I hear its aim is to encourage people to visit and idle empty days and leisurely weekends (and Honeymoons?) away at the book city.
Their website www.beifabook.com lets you order books online (English titles too!) and scan through their selection of the latest books in the Chinese market – what a step up from the system-less situation we’re currently in. Also get this: There are free shuttle buses from Xizhimen (from the front of the Debao Hotel), Jianguomen (from out the front of Huarun Dasha), Tianshuiyuan (south of the Beijing wholesale book market) and Yuanmingyuan (from the carpark at the south gate) that heads direct to the center free of charge. Tongzhou rocks.
Beijing Publishing Logistics Center
Daily 9am-5pm. 12 Zhengfu Dajie, Taihu Zhen, Tongzhou District. (8080 8888) www.beifabook.com
北京出版发行物流中心, 通州区台湖镇政府大街13号