Not sure where to spend a rainy (or snowy) day? Itching to read an English language book you don’t feel like waiting for in the mail? Then go to Phoenix International Book Mall, which has dedicated a good portion of its fifth floor to English-language books. The selection is not exhaustive but comprehensive and more than sufficient for anyone simply missing a read of home. Here you will find classics old and modern, thrillers, romance, self-help, economics, coffee table books, travel guides (unfortunately, not much, if anything, on China), SAT/GRE prep, college guides, dictionaries and other reference books. There’s also a special children’s and youth section.
All the big names in literature (English-language and otherwise) can be found here: Hemingway, Steinbeck, Bronte, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Lessing, Tan, Dickens, Nabokov, Kundera, Tyler, Wright… You can even find David Sedaris, David Lynch and recent best-sellers like Freakonomics and let’s not forget the Twilight series or Dan Brown’s latest work. There are also shelves of Chinese as a Foreign Language books in a neighboring section. The best thing about this place are the benches (most customers stick to the Chinese-language floors so you will likely find a spot to chill out here, even on weekends) and clean toilets footsteps away. If you are coming with children, there is also a Lego Center on the same floor. What more could you want?
The prices are fair for imports, most range between 70 and 120 RMB, although there is a selection of Bantam classics that are a steal at 25 (I recently found a copy of Lady Chatterly’s Lover). The cool thing is, if you don’t feel like forking over the cash, you’re more than welcome to just browse and read to your heart’s content. No one will bother you…until closing time. And, even then, they are as polite as possible about it.
On the other floors, there are the usual Chinese-language books, stationery (including a nice selection of fancy fountain pens, cute notebooks/journals galore and bookbags), pianos (yes, the instruments) and Apple gadgets, DVDs and CDs, music books, a whole fourth floor dedicated to toys (with a space for young children to play), plus magazines. There is also a Starbucks next door on the ground floor for those of you thirsty for a frappuccino or latte.
Where: Phoenix International Bookmall (??????), No. 1 Hunan Lu (???1?); it is basically at the end of Hunan Lu, across the street from the Xuanwuhu metro station; if you are coming from Shanxi Lu direction going down Hunan Lu, it’s on the right. If you get lost and need to ask for directions, just ask how to get to the huge mall called BaBaiBan (???). Phoenix is inside.
Nearby Public Transport Stops: Xuanwuhu (???) Metro Stop, Shanxi Lu (???) Bus Stop
Hours: 9:30 AM – 9:00 PM Monday-Thursday; 9:00AM – 9:30 PM Friday-Sunday
