Category: shopping

  • Page One Bookstore 叶一堂, Beijing

    Page One Bookstore 叶一堂, Beijing

    This post is based on one of two very different bookstores in Beijing which I(Chris) visited before the pandemic. First, Page One is a bookstore chain and publisher founded in Singapore in 1983 by Mark Tan (陈家强), which has retail shops built in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Thailand, and in China (since the…

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  • Wangfujing Bookstore 王府井书店, Beijing

    Wangfujing Bookstore 王府井书店, Beijing

    The following two posts are about two very different bookstores in Beijing, both visited before the pandemic. The first is Wanfujing Bookstore, situated at the beginning of Wangfujing Dajie (王府井大街), in Dongcheng district 東城區 of central Beijing. I (Chris) was on a business trip and I dragged a very patient colleague along to this bookstore. …

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  • Mariage Frères, London

    Mariage Frères, London

    This visit to London was made in December 2018. The post has been sitting around for a while. We hope the store survives the pandemic with enough local customers while the tourists who frequent Covent Garden are gone. It was a long weekend. On our last day in London, we booked a place for brunch…

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  • Maison Assouline, London

    Maison Assouline, London

    Another post on bookstores. Assouline is a publisher of books that serve as luxury lifestyle accessories. They are based in New York but the flagship store is in London, opened in 2014.  We were in London during Christmas 2018. The store is situated between two other book-lovers destinations – Hatchards and Waterstones – mainstream bookstores.…

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  • Amazon Books, Walnut Creek

    Amazon Books, Walnut Creek

    We have posted on this blog many pictures of bookstores, and lamented the fact that brick-and-mortar bookstores are becoming rare and possibly extinct in certain cities. In the US, this trend is driven largely by the advent of e-books sold online. Amazon started their global online business with this retail concept. By chance, we came…

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  • Morabit Marbre Fossils, Erfoud

    Morabit Marbre Fossils, Erfoud

    Our first detour after we left our Merzouga desert camp on our cross-country drive was a fossil factory or rock shop – Morabit Marbre Fossils, at Erfoud – the fossil capital of Morocco. What kind of music goes with fossils ? Try this : During the Devonian period, the Paleozoic Era, from about 450 million…

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