Foreign Languages Bookstore

The Foreign Languages Bookstore on Fuzhou Road carries a distinctive vertical sign with bold, red lettering that stretches high above the street level. For decades, this shop served as the primary window into Western literature and ideas for many in Shanghai when few other options existed. During the nineteen seventies, students and intellectuals famously gathered here to hunt for scarce imported technical manuals and translated novels. The shelves hold stories from travelers who spent entire afternoons crowded into these aisles searching for forbidden knowledge.