Beijing's biggest book seller, the Beijing Books Building, has reported a sharp business increase during the seven－day Spring Festival holiday, as residents find themselves with more free time.
Mr. Chen woke up early today, on the last day of spring festival, to be one of the first customers at the Beijing Books Building. He's looking for some good reading materials for his family.
"Since Spring Festival is almost over, I came here to help my daughter who kept asking for some good books. We've been really busy in the last few days with holiday activities but we've managed to spare today to buy some books for her and some for myself," said a book buyer.
A manager at the Books Building said that business always improves during the Spring Festival holiday.
Zhou Yan, division manager of Beijing Books Building, said: "The number of the customers here has doubled during the Spring Festival. Our revenue during the holiday has hit 6.5 million yuan, 15 percent above the same period last year."
The manager said the best selling books are story books and books on tourism, food, health, computers and learning English. Movies and compact discs were also hot commodities.
(CCTV.com February 9, 2003)
