Unlike a lot of other cities in China, Shanghai has a ton of English book stores. Virtually everything you would want, you can find either at Garden Books on Changle Road, or one of the many shops near People’s Square. The problem is that these stores are all very overpriced. I love to read, but when a short novel with a USD price on the back that reads $8.99 costs 200 RMB ($30) or more, it becomes a luxury.

Meeting the demand for reasonably priced books are street vendors. Like vendors selling DVDs or CDs on the street, a lot of entrepreneurs put up shop on the side of the road with a cart or wagon full of English and Chinese paperbacks of dubious origin. The selection is obviously limited, but it’s rare that you won’t find something interesting.

Unlike buying movies or Wii games, you’ll have to bargain a bit, and it’s best to do it when nobody else is around. Depending on the size of the book, 10 – 20 RMB is about right.

The notable thing about these books the vendors sell is that the quality is so good, you’d never know they were fake. Contrast this to some of the books we picked up from street vendors in India, where not only was the paper quality and binding job ridiculously poor, they were often missing pages or even chapters! Ever read a book only to find after 200 pages, every other page is missing although numbered correctly? LAME.