Today I spent the afternoon at the Shangtu East Pavilion. It's my first time here, and the transportation is very convenient. Now there's no need to make an appointment in advance.
The exterior of the building is beautiful, and the interior space is spacious. The views and lighting are great from all sides.
Exterior and Views#
Reading Space#
The reading space is very large, with a total of seven floors, but I only explored the first three floors. There are many seats, but there are even more people. It's impossible to reserve a seat online, and even next week is fully booked. 🥲 I had to sit on the floor for half an afternoon until I finally found a great spot by the window around four or five o'clock. The sofa chairs are very comfortable.
In addition to books, there are also calligraphy, manuscripts, old photos, and old objects in the library. When there are no seats available, you can wander around to pass the time.
Complaints#
The downside is that there are too few books. Several Japanese novels and old books on social sciences that I wanted to find were not available. (There seems to be a lot of modern and contemporary Chinese literature) And the arrangement of the books is messy and disorganized!! It seems like readers just put them back wherever they want after reading. I saw a book titled "What Women Really Think" among a pile of sociology books, and then I saw a book titled "What Men Really Think" among a pile of economics-related books. 🤣
I spent the afternoon reading some manuscripts and a few interesting books. 🇫🇷
I miss the new library at Xatu, even though the books are old, the arrangement is neat, and it's easy to locate them with the book numbers (probably because there are relatively fewer borrowings).
Overall, the environment is very good, and it's very comfortable to bring your own books and read here. It's a good place to go when you're bored.