A rural success story

The opening day saw hundreds of people from nearby cities including Guangdong's Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai and the local area visiting the bookstore.

One man, surnamed Guan, from Chikan carefully examined the books about local geography and history in the second granary.

As a researcher of local history, he notes that the books in that section would be very helpful to his work and that he likes the way the books are categorized, which he says he seldom sees in other bookstores.

"This bookstore also can serve as a public space for lectures and forums, and will surely enrich people's cultural life and improve local tourism," he adds.

Originally, the five granaries were individual spaces separated from one another, but architect Yang Zhijiang and his team designed a corridor on the west side to connect them and form a big public space for books, cultural creative products and activities.

Now, hanging on the west wall of the long corridor are more than 50 posters, designed for various events held in Librairie Avant-Garde's different branches over the past 27 years. Visitors can check cultural creative products on the tables set out in front of the wall, more than 80 types of which are inspired by the local culture.

On the north side of the granaries, architects torn down the original three-story dormitory building and replaced it with a cafe. Four huge steel "trees" support the whole structure, and when people sit on the sofas below, it is like sitting in a copse.