Tainan is a city full of history and culture.
Aside from monuments,
bookstores are also places where you can explore diversity of cultures.
And so here behind me you can find
a second-hand book store,
and here you can see lots of different books,
treasures and also a lot of things about culture.
So let’s go and check it out!
Please help us introduce this place.
First,
I’d like to talk about this area.
It looks like a hidden bookshelf inside your heart,
and you can find the book you’ve lost.
This bookshelf mostly displays a lot of old books.
For example, there are poetries , language books and Chinese books.
So if someone is looking for some classic old books,
they can come to this bookshelf and look for their treasures.
It is called the prop room.
We just set it up recently.
It’s very special.
For example,
these large objects over here,
are actually posters of animation and movies.
And then these are
the postcards that were found while organizing donated books.
So we just put them together to make into a book.
So this prop room mostly collects a lot of different things other than books.
Mostly they come from people who want to move,
or people who own spare things.
they will be sent to this store.
A friend of mine was going to move out but couldn’t bear to just throw his possessions away.
It can be reused as a bookshelf.
We attached the drawers to the wall,
and they now function as both bookshelves and a wall decoration.
So a lot of things in this bookstore are reused.
For example, this closet behind me was from a grandmother.
I think this is a very great idea,
because they don’t waste any resource.
They built a bookstore by all these reused things.
This is really a great book store.
You know, I can find all kinds of second-hand books here in this second-hand bookstore.
For example you can get poetry,
you can get kids books,
or even foreign language literature.
And so I can even spend one afternoon just sitting here and reading my favorite books.
We now here at Yancheng Library in the South District.
So unlike other libraries you might see in many places,
this library has a more innovative and newly design.
And so this place has become a favorite spot of the residents here at this district,
and also a famous tourist attraction
where a lot of tourists would come to visit.
Aside from the cool outer design,
the inner design is also super awesome.
Let’s go and check it out!
Here is the kids’ area.
It is meant to separate toddlers from the age of 0-5 with older children.
The main reason is because toddlers
often like crawling on the floor,
and are not used to sitting still for too long.
So the kids’ books areas are separated into two different parts.
On my left-hand side is for the kids that are 0 to 5 years old,
and on my right-hand side are for kids that are over 5.
And the reason why they want to do this
is because kids of different ages have different requirements.
Little kids might need parents to care them intensively,
while the kids here might want to write something or read books on the table,
so there would also be some tables down here.
The most special feature that attracts the residents is that
it has a big stair that goes through the first to the third floor.
When designing here,
the architect hoped the residents
can feel like sitting in a bunch of books.
They can immerse themselves in reading,
yet unlike ordinary libraries where you sit in a strict way.
And so the reason they want to set up this kind of floor is
people and especially kids
can just write their homework or read their favorite books on the ground,
and sit in a relaxed manner and do whatever they want.
So we have been to the second-hand bookstore
and this really cool library,
and I think these places are not just tourist attractions
or instagrammable places for the residents here,
but has already been a part of their life.
So next time when you come to the South District,
you don’t have to really pursue for cuisine or tourist attractions,
but just bring a relaxing heart and enjoy your time here at the South District.