For the avid readers in Beijing, Roundabout is planning another Book Fair and Charity Open Day coming up on Oct 24 – 25 from 10am – 3pm.

The last Roundabout Book Fair held in September raised RMB 74,792.27 which was sent to aid children with blood disease. What an amazing achievement made possible by volunteers from all over Beijing and the local community itself.

Flip through thousands of fantastic books

This time, the Book Fair is in conjunction with their Charity Open Day which means that this is a fantastic opportunity for you to bring the family and learn more about all the charities you can help out with. In other words, it’s a weekend where you can restock your library at home and discover your new philanthropic passion!

Bringing the community together

Roundabout needs volunteers’ support to make these book fairs happen. For those who would like to volunteer at the upcoming Book Fair & Charity Open Day, Roundabout is still looking for people to help sort books, set up, help out on the day of the fair, and take down the booths when it’s over. Scan the QR code below or add them at 185 1044 9951 to get in touch with them about volunteering at the event.

Roundabout Cathay View Plaza
No. 2 Xiangjiang Bei Lu, Chaoyang District
Ph: 6436 8506

KEEP READING: What Else is Roundabout Good For?

Images: Courtesy of Roundabout, Unsplash

It can get a little boring staying at home for long periods, so what better way to pass the time than with a good book! Students have all been attending online lessons for the past few months, so it also gives us a bit of a break from a screen.

Here are my top reading recommendations for teens. You can either inquire at your favorite local bookstore about ordering them, download on Kindle, or have them shipped to Beijing via The Book Depository.

Wayward Son

by Rainbow Rowell

This is the highly anticipated sequel of No.1 bestseller Carry On in which protagonist Simon Snow did everything he was supposed to do. He beat the villain, won the war, and even fell in love. Now comes the good part, the happily ever after, right? Except that in Wayward Son, Snow finds himself in a vintage convertible sailing through the American West, dealing with dragons, vampires, and skunk-headed things with shotguns. And they get lost. They get so lost that they start to wonder whether they ever knew where they were headed in the first place.

The Da Vinci Code

by Dan Brown

This book truly is one for the spy-at-heart. Follow Harvard professor Robert Langdon on a journey through France as he unravels the murder of the elderly curator of the Louvre. As he works his way through the bizarre riddles, he discovers a trail that leads to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci. Unless he can piece together and solve the puzzle in time, a historical truth will be lost forever.

The Fault In Our Stars

by John Green

In this heart-wrenching story, Hazel Grace has been terminally ill her entire life, even despite the tumor-shrinking miracle that has bought her a few extra years. But when Augustus Waters shows up one day at Cancer Kid Support group, her story is about to take a major plot twist.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

Charlie isn’t the biggest geek in high school. But he’s by no means popular, not by a long shot. Being a wallflower, shy, and intelligent beyond his years, Charlie is often caught between trying to live his life and running away from it as he navigates through the labyrinth that is high school. Standing on the fringes of life, Charlie has a unique perspective of the world around him, but there comes a time where he has to get off the sidelines and see what life is like on the dance floor.

Tuesdays with Morrie

by Mitch Albom

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, or wiser that gave you sound advice, who understood you when you were young. For Mitch Albom, it was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor more than 20 years ago. Like many others, he lost track of his mentor over the years, but he got the chance to visit him one last time. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying of ALS, Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final ‘class’: lessons in how to live.

KEEP READING: Volunteer at the Upcoming Roundabout Book Fair

Photos: Tierney, Jim. Wayward Son. Rainbow Rowell, Wednesday Books, 2019., The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, Doubleday, 2003., Corral, Rodrigo. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green, Dutton Books, 2012., The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky, MTV Books, 1999., Tuesdays with Morris, Mitch Albom, Doubleday, 1997.

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 August issue

Recently, we celebrated World Book Day, by discussing how to take advantage of the Kindle Unlimited book offer to get access to over a million free titles for kids, young adults, and parents alike. But it also got us thinking, now that the venerable Sanlitun institution The Bookworm is gone, how else can Beijing booklovers get their fix of physical books? Luckily, if you know where to look, there are a range of great reading resources in the capital for adults and children alike. Let’s take a look…

Bookstores

Here are some of our favorite go-to bookstores in the capital, broken down by neighborhood.

• Sanlitun: Multi-level Page One is hard to beat, with kids and young adult books on the 2nd floor. The newly opened Jetlag Books in Taikooli North is also worth a peek. 
• Shunyi: Roundabout has a nice selection of second-hand and loved books. They are not open right now, but you can browse using their new online shopping app.
• Xicheng: Xidan Books has been serving the book-hungry crowd in this western district for ages, and has a decent range of English language books. Meanwhile, bookstore chain Zhongshuge just opened a new location in Galleries Lafayette with a seriously eye-catching interior design.
• Dongcheng: The obvious starting point is the mega Wangfujing Bookstore, then just down the road the Foreign Languages Bookstore. Then, or the more graphically minded, we can’t go past WBcomics.

Libraries

Aside from the library at your child’s school, the National Library of China has the largest collection of English books in the country and is a beautiful, quiet place to read or study. It also has dedicated children’s and foreign language collections, and foreign ID cardholders can register for membership. In Chaoyang District, Capital Library also allows foreigners to borrow books, although their foreign language collection is smaller. Scholastic Children’s Library has multiple locations in the city, however they are still awaiting approval from the government to reopen. Meanwhile if you’re after books in other languages, organizations such as the Alliance Française de Pekin (French) and Goethe-Institut (German) also large collections of books for all ages.

Order Online

Yes, you can order English books via Taobao, but be warned that the quality tends to vary quite a lot: think cheap paper and smudged print. Amazon, usually the go-to in other countries, don’t have a great range of titles in the Chinese version, due to the market dominance of other online shopping platforms. Therefore, one of the best and reputable services is The Book Depository. Just expect your orders to take a couple of weeks to arrive.

WeChat Groups

And of course, there is always WeChat. There are more ‘second-hand stuff’ groups of WeChat than you can shake a stick at, and books are always on offer, especially during ‘moving season’. Ask around in your community to be added to some, and keep your eyes peeled, as good quality books in Beijing are a hot commodity!

Please note: due to COVID-19, many businesses in Beijing have been forced to close temporarily. We have endeavored to make this list as up to date as possible, but we cannot guarantee opening hours so (as always in China) it’s best to check ahead of time.

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments, or drop us an email directly at editor@beijing-kids.com.

KEEP READING: Entrepreneurs and Psycho Butts – the Xu Family Tell Us About Their Favorite Books

Images: Johnny McClung (via Unsplash)