Night Life at Taipei’s Eslite Bookstore

Night light in Taipei is the most important activity tourists like to participate, especially the 24 hours Eslite Bookstore, which has become the unique night view of culture in Taipei. Arts, trends and fashions interweave at night and form a multi-culture place.

In 1999, Eslite Bookstore in Dunnan has set a precedent; it has become the first bookstore that opens for 24 hours in the world. This innovative operation model has not only launched a new night lifestyle of zero-time different urban reading culture in Taiwan but also a leading cultural scenery in the world that attracts tourists all over the world to experience the most unique beautiful view and feel “wandering in the bookstore in the mid of the night”.

Nightlife with the smell of the books

During the early period of the opening of the 24-hr Eslite Bookstore in Dunnan of 1990, it was very crowed, too many to require a traffic control. It has been reported by the French Fifth Channel, BBC National Radio and Television, Japanese Fuji Media and other internationally well-known media. In 2004, it has awarded as the “Best Asian Store” by Time Asia.

“A urban night life with the smell of the books, which makes the city and night owls more elegant.” Says the manager at Eslite. The night-time crowd concentrated between 22:00 to 2:00 am next day mostly. There will be more on the night of Friday and Saturday, a large proportion of which are tourists from Hong Kong, Korea, and others. Based on preliminary statistics, each year the total number of tourists that visited the Bookstore at Dunnan has exceeded 500 thousand people.

Multi-cultural places

Now, the Eslite in Dunnan is no longer just a bookstore, except for the 230 thousand varied types of books from domestic and abroad displayed in the store, other floors have culture events, stationery, pop music, fashion boutiques, cultural and creative products, wine cellar, food court and themed restaurant, which interweave a fun and multi-cultural place.

In addition to the 24-hour Eslite Bookstore in Dunnan, recently, the Eslite Bookstore in Songyan and Xinyi have also become more and more pretty. The Songyan store owns a cinema designed by famous architect Toyo Ito. The cinema mainly plays artistic movie, including an artistic movie from inside and outside the island, independent produced movie, Chinese film, documentaries, animation and other related themes. It opens till 11 o’clock in the evening, which has attracted a lot of office workers to come after work.

The Library turn into a bar

Operated by Eslite, the Library Restaurant on the sixth floor of the Xinyi store, has just recently switched to bar model to operate during the night time. Eslite pointed out that, near the Xinyi Business Center, there are a lot of office workers, who would like to find some less pressured a quiet place to stay after finishing a busy schedule.

The Library in the night was designed from the concept of “Share, eating”. No matter you are with three or five friends or by yourself, you can simply enjoy various wine carefully selected by professional sommelier. With specially prepared fine food and live light jazz, in a cozy and free atmosphere, you can enjoy a different but beautify night life.

Eslite Bookstore – Dunnan

Opening Time: Bookstore 24 hours/ Mall 11:00 – 22:30

Address: No. 245, Sec. 1 South Dunhua Road, Taipei

 

The Library Bar

Time:    Monday to Thursday 11:30 – 22:00

Friday to Saturday 11:30 – 23:00

Address: No. 6 Buidling, No. 11, Songgao Road, Taipei