The BookMark is a community lending library located in the Shunyi District.

The library was created by three Shunyi-based women. The Shunyi area is where most of Beijing’s expatriates live and we felt there was a real lack of cultural services in the area.

 As mothers, home educators and most of all, avid readers, we thought a library would be a great addition to our community here. We wanted to provide a library for both children and adults but also a type of community centre where we could hold film screenings, book clubs, children’s storytime, art exhibitions, homeschool meetings and possibly even evening classes.

After finding our location and holding a big book drive, we opened to the public on May 10th, 2006 and have received overwhelming response and support from the community.

We are now a multi-lingual library with the majority of books in English. We have a selection of books for both children and adults in Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish, German and Dutch. We have a dedicated children’s room housing our huge collection of board books, picture books, story books and educational materials for younger readers. We have chapter books for older children and a large teenage fiction section.

In addition to our vast fiction section for adults, we have many non-fiction categories. We also have a selection of magazines.

The library has wi-fi internet access and drinks and snacks can be served from either of our two neighbouring cafes – Smallville and Mrs Shanen’s.  Library members get 10% discount on all food and drink orders from  Smallville Cafe and 10% off food orders from The Yard Malaysian restaurant.

The library is located just next door to Smallville Cafe, behind the motorbike shop. You can enter through the alley in between the motorbike shop and Ms. Shannen's or through Smallville's side door.

Our hugely popular Saturday Storytime is held weekly at 10am and is free for members. 

Please come by, grab a book or a magazine, order yourself a nice cup of coffee and relax!