Rare find: Librairie Avant-Garde

if you like orginal design...

"A city is not a real city until it has a good bookshop. A city can be judged by its bookshops."

Unlike the duplicate Xinghuas spread across Nanjing and the rest of China, Librairie Avant-Garde is a surprising and somewhat mysterious underground establishment that i did not expect to find in my hometown. You can tell the owner Qian Xiaohua intended this place for an edgy, intellectual audience and in my opinion, it exudes substance. The walls are slathered with modish photographs, Monet's lily ponds and Led Zeppelin album covers which fitfully juxtapose weathered yellow stripes on cemented floors as you adjust to the dim (it used to be an underground carpark - bold indeed for Nanjing!). Shelves hold alluring reads which range from Descartes to Baudelaire and even if you're a novice in the field of art and literature like me, you'll still be devouring the stimulating choice of reads for a few hours in the surreal surrounds.

I first read about Librairie Avant-Garde in Nanjing's street mag MAP magazine (For english readers - this is a free monthly magazine on culture and happenings in Nanjing - a must grab if you visit). In Julie Sisk's interview with Qian, he said he wanted to create a place separate from the rest of the world, the shop's motto being 'a stranger on earth'. I certainly felt like he knew what he was doing and simply put - this place is very cool.

173 Guangzhou Lu, opposite The Nanjing Grand Hotel
Edit: also 2FF, 12 Guangzhou Lu Tel: 8332 6886
and 1F Orient Department Store No. Hanzhong Lu