Checking in at Xi'an Blue Ocean Wind Manxiang Bookstore

When I had four spare hours in Xi'an and was looking for a place of solace, the city's recent bookstore history deeply moved me. Once upon a time, chain bookstores like Tsutaya Books, Zhongshuge, and Yanjiyou, known for their "aesthetic utopias," captivated countless visitors with their design and lifestyle proposals. Yet, within a few short years, they closed one after another. Xi'an Tsutaya sadly closed after three years, and Yanjiyou filed for bankruptcy due to a broken capital chain. This, coupled with Zhongshuge's Chongqing store falling from "internet fame" into history, reveals that behind this "internet-famous bookstore avalanche" lies not only a failed business model but also the paradox of physical spaces in the age of consumerism. Standing beneath the bookshelves of Blue Ocean Wind Manxiang, I suddenly realized that the survival of physical bookstores isn't about resisting the digital tide, but about redefining their value. They can be halls of knowledge, community bonds, or even vessels of urban memory. While Tsutaya and others were trapped by the "internet-famous" label, Blue Ocean Wind Manxiang silently proved that only by deeply integrating aesthetics into life and making culture truly "accessible and participatory" can a bookstore transcend cycles and become a "survivor" and "innovator" in the tide of the times. As the saying goes, no matter how the times change, only those who adapt can survive.☕️