New type of bookstores sweep across urban China

江西赣州三中 赖丽霞

中国城市涌现许多新型书店，如西西弗书店，这家连锁书店使用大数据技术来找出最时尚的书，而且为了抵御来自线上书店的激烈竞争，这家实体书店也提供折扣。

About a year ago，Xi Zhigang formed a new habit：visiting a newly-opened bookshop near his home next to Xizhimen，a major subway intersection in Beijing.He comes to Sisyphe three times a week， each time staying for a whole morning or afternoon.

The modern coffee area in Sisyphe has brought extra enjoyment to bookworms.Sisyphe is a chain-store brand that has made its footprint in more than 60 Chinese cities，with more than 200 bookstores serving readers.The name Sisyphe draws inspiration from Sisyphus，a figure in Greek mythology.During the year between January 2017 and February 2018，seven Sisyphe bookstores were opened in Beijing alone.Its newest and largest bookstore in the Chinese capital opens on April 27th to the public.The bookstore is situated within the Guomao shopping mall，in a high-end downtown of east Beijing．

Company figures claim that some 110 million customers visited its bookstores around the country in 2018.This means that some 1，500 people visit one of the 200 Sisyphe bookstores each day．

How has such rapid expansion come about?Sisyphe employs big data technology to find out what the trendiest books are so it can highlight them in its bookstores.Customers can find the newly published and trendy books right after they walk into the bookstores.The Sisyphe bookstore also offers less popular but intellectually significant books as well as many other books that have high design quality. For these books， a meticulous（细心的）catalogue system is being used to help readers navigate the numerous titles.In another effort to fend off（抵挡）the fierce competition from online bookstores，the bricks-and-mortar（实体的）bookstore also offers discounts，which is a standard practice of the online shops．

The company behind Sisyphe says it plans to open 100 new bookstores across the country within the year to expand its book business even further.

As the Sisyphe manager takes me around its Xizhimen chain store，I can see that the reading area，with its long table and high stools（凳子），is fully occupied.All of the readers there seem to be lost in what they are reading．

I grab an opportunity to ask a young lady questions as she gets up to put her book back on the shelf.The young lady identifies herself as Ms Wu and says she's about to graduate from college.Wu says she stays at Sisyphe for hours，but she is not a bookworm.It's the environment that keeps her here.“This kind of bookstore is great.It gives you a good environment to think，study or plan for your life as well as reading.In this atmosphere，I am calmed as I read，”said Wu．

Across China， 225，000 bookstores and sales outlets for books had appeared in the country by the end of 2018.That's a four percent increase on the previous year，according to an annual report on the country's bookstore industry．

Taking Beijing as an example，50 million yuan in subsidies（补贴）has been distributed to some 150 bookstores in the city since the release of the municipal （市政的）policies in July 2018.It's expected that such favorable government policies will further boost the growth of bookstores．

Reading Check

Why did Sisyphe expand so rapidly？