Goethe Bookstore is the first bookstore in China named after Goethe, a famous German thinker and writer. It is located in a century-old building on European Style Street, Heping District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. It was built in 1923 and served as a car dealership, department store, children’s bookstore, Xinhua Bookstore, etc. It was renamed Goethe Bookstore in 2016.

When you enter it, you will see the 500-square-meter store decorated in Gothic and neoclassical styles. There are wooden bookshelves, red velvet sofas, stained glass windows, and ubiquitous books. Although it is a bookstore, it seems like a European aristocrat’s study.

Goethe Bookstore combines the features of “reading, creativity, fashion, and art” to create a classic cultural scene in the style of European libraries. It has nearly thirty thousand volumes, including over three hundred original books in foreign languages such as German, French, and English, with nearly one thousand volumes. In addition to the public reading area, there is also a VIP place for some small reading activities.

Goethe Bookstore is not only a bookstore, but also a cafe. Every cup of coffee is made of freshly ground imported coffee beans, so besides “books’ aroma”, there is also “coffee’s aroma” in the bookstore.

In addition to a rich collection of books, special activities are also one of the “features” of Goethe Bookstore. Reading sharing-themed events, book launches, life aesthetics classes... It arranges many tasteful and heart-warming activities in turn every day to impress readers. In July this year, Milan Kundera, a renowned European writer passed away. When Goethe Bookstore organized an activity called “Readers”, a reader chose In Search of Milan Kundera and read a paragraph with great affection, “I often saw her and Milan Kundera’s slender bodies follow each other like a shadow. Their figures, as well as their fickle fates across centuries and countries, were quite touching.”

Walking along the stairs to the second floor, you can see plenty of wooden wishing cards hung on the handrails on both sides of the stairs. Chinese and foreign readers wrote down their desires in different words, praying for good health, success in exams, smooth love, and traveling around the world... Half of these wishes are about life, half are about dreams.

Goethe Bookstore is the first 24-hour bookstore in Northeast China. Foreigners who catch an early flight often read here until dawn. Since last winter, a VIP reader Sun Lin has often come here to prepare for her exams. She said, “There are many original books in foreign languages, which are very helpful for language exams. The evening is the most wonderful time for learning, and the 24-hour bookstore lights a lamp for readers.”

Goethe said, “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries.” The light of Goethe Bookstore is the temperature of the city, and the books’ aroma in the air is the smell of the city.

Across the street from the bookstore, the statues of Chinese literary greats Bajin, Laoshe, Cao Yu, and Ye Shengtao stand in silence, facing the bookstore, where they “meet”, read words, exchange ideas, inherit history, and cultivate culture.