With the ubiquitousness of e-books, there is still a group of people who are in love with paper-made books. They cherish their collection of books and devote themselves in the career of selling secondhand books. Accompanied with books, they are unwilling to give up, though the business is gloomy. Their dreams and the reality crash in the commercial city.

The vendors selling old books can hardly be found on the streets of Kunming. How about the second-hand book market in Kunming? Reporters investigated the secondhand book market in Kunming for nearly a week to describe the present situation of secondhand book market in Kunming.

Western Station Old Book Market December 5

An aged man walked out the gate of an old bookshop with Shilin—Tour in China in his hand. "I’m getting old, and I’m not as energetic as before. Recalling the past stories made me feel good," said the man. "The business here is not that prosperous, and here I find few buyers,"said he.

In the Shipeng Bookshop, the owner Qi Shiming (齐诗鸣) is cleaning his shelves. There are almost 20 ton of paper-made reading materials in his bookshop. "Maybe I’m with these books for a long time so I think I can not live without them," said Qi. He also said: "When I am old, I will enjoy my days reading books while drinking tea with my old friends."

"When I worked in the factory, I used to think of selling out the books I’ve read before," said 59-year-old Qi, which he thinks is the main reason for his starting running the store. In 2007, he rented a room near Lianhuachi Lake area and started his send-hand book business. "The rent at that time was 25 yuan/㎡, which I thought was acceptable. There were nearly 200 customers a day," said Qi. "I enjoyed the past time, though the land of the room was just 10 ㎡, we had many buyers, especially students from Yunnan Normal University and Yunnan Nationality University."

In 2009, Qi’s collection of books has reached to 20,000 copies from 10,000 and it exceeded 25,000 in 2011, however, the store didn’t see a pleasant turnover.

"The business is gloomy. Our buyers are not rich, and the rich seldom come here to buy books," said Qi. "There used to be 30 bookstores around Lianhua Lake area, but there are six left now owing to the reconstruction of the city in 2010. Besides bookstore merchants should take charge of both the collection and sales of books. At that time, I have more than 13 ton second-hand books," said Qi.

In order to make a living, Qi had to resettle to Western Station Overpass area. "Many regular customers didn’t know our new location of store so the sale was on the decline," said Qi. His bookstore was confronted with the problem of resettling this year. His books were as many as 20 ton now, he moved to the Second-hand Book Market near Western Station at the rent of 35 yuan/㎡.

There are eight second-hand bookstores around Western Station. These bookstores sell books on literature, history, philosophy and teaching materials.

Li Yongbin (李永彬), born in the generation after 80s , is an owner of a second-hand bookstore covering an area of 30 ㎡. Li said his bookstore can hardly continue the operation without running a business on the Internet. "The situations of all booksellers are similar, and we can not make big profits. We are just earning a living," he introduced while bundling his books up."After packing them up, express company will come to deliver to our clients. I started my e-shop in 2009, and I can earn more than 1000 yuan if lucky," said Li.

Shubixing Bookshop is the one with the best market environment and best book qualities in the market. The woman of the store, Cong Qin (从琴), is a graduate from Yunnan University. The wife and the man stick to run a bookstore and the outlets have been opened in Sichuan province and Yunnan province.

"Both my husband and I were college students. After graduation, we worked at companies and each of us earned 1000 yuan per month. In order to make more money, we sold second-hand books in spare time. Purchasing in the wholesale market, we placed our stall near Kunming College, which earned us nearly four hundred yuan a night," when recalling the previous years, she regarded it as a treasure.

"The reason for our persistence is that we are ardent lovers of books," Cong Qin said. "When you are truly in love with a matter, you will be fueled to do it well,”" said Cong.

There are seven bookstores in Huangtupo Xiaotun Second-hand Book Market which are engaging in the sale of second-hand novels, magazines, and teaching materials, books on literature, history, philosophy, stamps, calligraphy and paintings.

Ms Qu, an owner of a bookstore, said: "the rent was RMB 35/㎡ five years ago, and the present price is RMB 64/㎡. We used to sell books for a few hundred yuan a day, but it is hard to sell that many books today," said Qu.

Qu’s career of selling books can date back to 1997 when she sold used magazines. "My husband loved reading books so we engaged in selling books. Now we can hardly continue the business, our books are mainly collected from the salvage station at the price of nearly 4yuan/kg. Now, I want to persist in for a time, but I may quit when it is beyond my control," said Qu.

Qu said she had a wish: the soaring rent and utility bills can be slow down.

There are five second hand bookstores in Fude Secondhand Market, and most owners share the rooms.

Li Xinghua (李兴华)and Lei Yongfu(雷永富) are confident owners. Last year, they merged their own stores into one to save rent.

Li Xinghua worked in Kunming at his twenties and sold newspapers later. He sold newspapers in the daytime and placed stall of second-hand books at night in 2007. He started his store in 2008 in Xiaotun which was remote from the flourish area, so he moved to Fude Secondhand Market.

Lei Yongfu’s experience of selling secondhand books started from the 1980s. "I sold books in Xiaoximen at that time, because I liked reading. I moved to Cultural Center in 1999 but it was pulled down because of the reconstruction. Later I had moved for three times. Both Li Xinghua and I like collecting books. But we can hardly collect some valuable books now, because there are fewer people reading books than that before. I’ll continue sell because I like my job."