Government promotes public reading spaces

With the sponsorship of the government, two new privately-run public reading spaces have been opened this year in Xicheng district, the Beijing News reported.

The most recent public reading space to be opened is a cafe and library called My Second Study, for which the government supplied the building premises and a 400,000 yuan ($65,263) grant to stock the library with books. The first public reading space, called Zhengyang Bookstore, was opened in April, and already has over 2,000 members.

In addition to the two public reading spaces, the Xicheng government is also considering other initiatives to promote reading, according to the report.