When the Japanese chain – Tsutaya Books 蔦屋書店 made its grand debut in China, back in 2020 in Hangzhou 杭州, it didn’t just open a storefront—it ignited a wave of premium, aesthetic-driven, “internet-famous” (网红, wanghong) bookstores across China. While visiting Hangzhou earlier this year, we made a pilgrimage to this iconic landmark.
A neat row of tables and chairs lines the outdoor walkway, inviting passersby to pause, sit, and enjoy the night air.
Listen to a tune while browsing.
Click any image to see a larger version
We had been a fan of Tsutaya Books since its pioneering Daikanyama 代官山 T-site opened in Tokyo in 2012. See our 2016 post on the T-site. This Hangzhou store is a textbook execution of the “cultural anchor” concept established in Daikanyama, adapted for China’s large scale urban developments. The store occupies a premier corner of OōEli (天目里, Tianmuli), a 60-acre ultra-modern commercial and artistic superblock designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop and GOA.
The infinite grid of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves creates a staggering backdrop for the warmly lit display tables below.
Here, art history books share space with stacks of international fashion magazines and delicate, handcrafted trinkets, encouraging a slow, discovery-driven style of browsing.
Walking down the main interior artery feels less like a traditional bookstore and more like exploring a carefully staged design exhibition. The layout opens up into wide, polished aisles flanked by low, accessible display tables.
We think non-Chinese books outnumber Chinese books in this section.
Tsutaya’s operational philosophy treats books as just one component of a broader lifestyle profile. Fashion monographs celebrating icons like Yves Saint Laurent, Comme des Garçons, and Maison Martin Margiela filled the shelves. There is even a book on my favorite brand – Stone Island.
This corner feels distinctively like a trendy boutique, pairing stacked issues of indie fashion magazines like Dazed, Double, and Homme+ with glass display cases showcasing jewelry, accessories, and designer bags.
It’s a clever retail strategy: high-margin lifestyle products help subsidize the lower-margin book sections.
The store also has a larger basement level, stocked with additional books (interiors and architecture section) and a range of accessories.
It’s a clever retail strategy: high-margin lifestyle products help subsidize the lower-margin book sections.
This table is a tribute to Hangzhou’s rich cultural heritage, featuring Chinese language books on West Lake and the city, strolling guides, literary works set in Hangzhou, and premium gift boxes of Longjing tea.
We paused to admire one of the large parchment lamps, on which are printed bilingual poetic texts that neatly captures the space’s underlying philosophy. Click to see a larger version of the photo. The English version reads: The “Yue” is to observe and to understand; the “Gu” is the sediment of history, the legacy of memory, and “Dang Dang” evokes a boundless and infinite realm of meaning.
We used AI to translate the Chinese version and got “阅 Reading is observation and understanding; 故 the ancient is the accumulation of history and the inheritance of memory. And 荡荡 Dangdang (strolling) is a boundless artistic conception.”
Nearby, we noticed a poster with similarly lyrical wording and a stated date range – possibly a clever touch that stages the display as if it were a museum exhibition.
There is a corner dedicated to showcasing a brand of French mouthwash – O.ggeguH. With a comically unpronounceable name, it claims to be a salon-level personal care brand from Paris, inspired by medieval monastic cleansing and sacrifice.
Under a canopy of suspended pendant lights and backed by towering walls of books is their espresso bar.
While a cup of coffee cannot offset the massive overhead of high-end real estate, the aroma of freshly ground beans makes the space infinitely more inviting.
In this day and age, where a majority of book sales happen online, spaces like Tsutaya face an uphill battle against these internet outlets.
Consumers flock here to “check in,” capture the perfect social media photo, and browse, yet often end up buying the books online later at a fraction of the cost.
To offset the harsh economics of brick-and-mortar retail, the bookstore houses an Italian restaurant—Bellacasa—which extends up to the second floor. Tsutaya seeks to curate not just books, but a complete lifestyle experience for this Chinese city. We previously blogged about a similar arrangement in Bologna, Italy, where a restaurant is set inside a bookstore (Librerie Coop + Eataly).
Tsutaya Books occupies a corner of OōEli (天目里, Tianmuli), a 16-building site with a diverse mix of offices, retail, restaurants, and event spaces. We will share our photos of this photogenic urban development in a later post.
Tsutaya is at Building 2, No. 398 Tianmushan Road, Hangzhou, reachable by metro line no. 3, Gudun Road 古墩路 station.
Leave a Reply