Chongqing South Road bookshops

Many writers, intellectuals and students liked to spend whole afternoons here; for them the street was like their Xinyi District, their shopping paradise, and it can be said that it helped to nurture many of Taiwan's elite. Under various pressures the street has gradually declined, and most of the shops still standing belong to large, well-known publishers, but Chongqing South Road still has the highest density of bookshops of any road in the Taipei area. In the Japanese colonial period, 台灣書籍株式會社 opened on Chongqing South Road to print the textbooks of the time; after the retrocession it became 台灣書店. When the textbook market was opened up in 2003, the textbook business it had handled was adjusted, and the shop was closed as policy and the market changed. The street's bookish character therefore has historical roots. Many bookshops still line the street, where books on every subject and for every purpose can be found. Because of market changes, fewer readers and competition from online bookshops, there are far fewer bookshops than before, but the street still holds an important place, and many publishers and bookshops carry on serving readers here. There are many long-established bookshops: 三民書局 was the first 'library-style' bookshop in Taiwan, and others such as 儒林書局, 世界書局 and 天瓏書局 each have their own character.

Translated and shortened by DealTaipei from Taiwan's national tourism database. Sources are on the terms page.