Sanlian Taofen 24-Hour Bookstore Wants to Make Dirty Bar Street Clean Again

Tom Arnstein | Jun 21, 2018 1:23 pm | 1 comment | 2743 reads

Amid the settling dust of Sanlitun’s neutered Dirty Bar Street, once the center of nefarious deeds in the capital, there’s a learned streak arising courtesy of reinvigorated government directives. Leading the charge is the new branch of Sanlian Taofen, a 24-hour bookstore that sits in stark contrast to the disco and shots-fueled Youth Club that once occupied the space. As our directory succinctly immortalizes that former haven for debauchery: “Not the place to discuss Kierkegaard.”

This overhaul means that may no longer be the case, with shelf upon shelf of Chinese classics, philosophy, and educational texts replacing the deafening pop music and sticky residue of tequila. As invigorating as the musty titles may be – with only two cases dedicated to English language books, largely encompassing the usual 20th-century classics – the main draw here is not the store’s contents but its unique layout. Serpentine walkways weave up, down, and through the two-story-tall bookshelves, which depending on your outlook, adds an exploratory tactility to the experience or an unwanted obstacle in finding the book you want. It also means that squeezing past readers is a given since the walkways are just about wide enough to accommodate two people. For the vertigo-inclined, suggested titles are also laid out on islands on the ground floor.

As an employee of the bookstore described, the whole space was transformed using government funding in a little over two weeks. While we would like to attribute that feat to unmatched Chinese engineering, poorly welded and flimsy metal railings and scuffed, unvarnished patches of wood betray the hasty means in which it was assembled and give the impression that it may vanish as quickly as it appeared. Most concerning, however, is that the same employee readily admitted that he had little faith in the safety of the towering bookshelves and railings, going as far as to prophesize an accident. We have been warned.

Looking past the imminent danger of drowning in literature, the store also has a two-level café which serves a range of coffees, teas, smoothies, and flavored sparkling waters (RMB 25-35) as well as a corner for overpriced gifts. All of that does little to quell concerns that this branch of Sanlian Taofen is more of a gimmick than a concerted move to eradicate the area’s more seedy underpinnings, an impermanent and rickety facade to project a more erudite Sanlitun landscape.

Sanlian Taofen Bookstore
Daily 24-hours. 43 Bei Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District
三联韬奋书店：朝阳区北三里屯路南43号