[Repost] Beijing Haidian Book City Pedestrian Street Reopens

5,483 characters2007.06.03

http://www.whxw.com.cn/Article/gg/200706/20070601090150_97206.shtml
Source: “Jinghua Times” Updated: 2007-6-1 9:01:50 Traditional Chinese
One of the city’s 10 distinctive commercial streets; studios for animation, film, and other fields are distributed among them
This newspaper report: On the morning of May 30, the Haidian Book City Pedestrian Street, after more than 10 months of renovation and transformation, was officially opened. This pedestrian street is the earliest completed project among the 10 city-level distinctive commercial streets planned to be completed in this city before 2008, and it is also the largest single street of book culture in the country.
The newly completed pedestrian street is 220 meters long, about 10 meters wide, with a floor area of 67,000 square meters. It is a cultural commercial district centered on the operation of books and cultural supplies. The main buildings of Haidian Book City are Jihai Tower and Haohai Tower. Among them, Jihai Tower houses 38 bookstores and publisher bookstores, including Tsinghua University Press and China Audit Press. Haohai Tower is divided into one underground floor and nine floors above ground. The underground floor and the first to third floors above ground, totaling about 4,800 square meters, deal in books and cultural supplies, including books, audio equipment, and electronic publications. Haohai Tower also contains about 60 publishers and bookstores, including the Electronic Industry Press, the Higher Education Press, and the Children’s Press. Within the two buildings, 98 publishers and bookstores are gathered, with a total of several million volumes of books.
In addition to Jihai Tower and Haohai Tower, the pedestrian street also has 14 buildings, including the China Bookstore Old Books Corridor, Xinhua Bookstore, Foreign Languages Bookstore, cultural book bars, online game rooms, animation studios, folk art studios, antique and old-book auction houses, film and television studios, and creative studios. Tea bars, coffee bars, themed bars, themed restaurants, and cultural leisure and entertainment venues are all available as well.
■Visiting the pedestrian street
An old landmark in new clothes
As soon as one enters the Haidian Book City Pedestrian Street, the first thing that catches the eye is the street’s landmark building—the paifang, which was built in 1992, 6 meters high and 4 meters wide.
The paifang has the style of traditional Chinese architecture; the top of each pillar is painted with golden dragons. The second-story corridor connects to the buildings on both sides, like a bridge linking Jihai Tower and Haohai Tower into one whole. The seven characters “China Haidian Book City” on the paifang were inscribed by former State President Li Xiannian. After the pedestrian street renovation, the paifang took off its original white coat and put on a new gray outfit, unified in tone with the buildings inside the street.
A new south square has been added
On the west side of the paifang, in addition to newly built motor-vehicle and non-motor-vehicle parking lots, a south square with a fountain has also been added. In particular, the mosaic of gray cement blocks of various sizes in the middle of the fountain is very eye-catching to passersby.
Wang Shuxia, director of the Haidian District Bureau of Commerce, introduced: “Haidian Book City is an ocean of books, a source of wisdom and inspiration. Drawing on the symbolism of water, we designed a waterscape in the south square of Haidian Book City, symbolizing that all friends who come to Book City are wise people. Those gray cement-block mosaics of various sizes correspond to the shapes of the buildings in Haidian Book City; Haohai Tower, China Bookstore, and Xueqin Calligraphy and Painting Society can all be matched one by one. Even the pedestrian street’s neighbors, Sanjiji Bookstore and the Christian church, have a place in the fountain.”
More than 10 old shops return to the team
There are 13 shops on each side of the pedestrian street. Besides bookstores one after another, there are also more than 10 small boutiques of famous brands dotted among them, such as optical shops, pharmacies, cultural and sports stores, jewelry shops, and so on. Most of these small shops were old residents when the Book City first opened; some have been here for more than 10 years. After the new pedestrian street opened, they became even more reluctant to move away, so in accordance with the overall requirements of the Book City plan, they upgraded and renovated their storefronts and then rejoined the team.
Compared with the pedestrian street of old, the only thing that has not changed is the nine old locust trees behind the paifang. They are still growing luxuriantly, except that there are now flowerbeds and stone benches for leisure beneath them.
All fire lanes are open
The most significant change after this renovation of the pedestrian street is that all fire lanes have been opened up. In the past, these passageways were all piled with miscellaneous items and bicycles, and some of them even had street vendors setting up stalls. Now all eight fire lanes on both sides of the pedestrian street have been opened up. At ordinary times, pedestrians can use these passageways to go directly into the homes of the pedestrian street’s “neighbors” to visit, for example, a passageway beside the public restroom can lead directly to Sanjiji Bookstore, and other passageways can lead directly to the west exit of the pedestrian street. In the event of a fire or other emergency, these passageways can serve functions such as allowing rescue vehicles through and evacuating crowds.

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Today I went to have a look, and it seemed that there wasn’t really much of a change. Where Xinhua Bookstore used to be has now been replaced by China Bookstore; downstairs there are discounted books on history, literature, and philosophy, not bad. Where Guolinfeng used to be has been replaced by a “Taoshu Commune,” where discounted books are everywhere. Among them are a great many books from the Commercial Press, all at half price. Moreover, that series “What I Know” is actually 1 yuan per book, and it’s quite complete too. In a fit of anger, I bought 42 volumes……