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Just a five minute trip from the Song Qingling residence, follow Huaihai Zhonglu toward Fuxing Xilu to reach the huge Shanghai library. Built in 1952, the main building is made up of two large high rises and a group of smaller buildings along its sides. The two buildings to the east and west are in the shape of multi-dimensional platform-style blocks, and are meant to symbolize both a foundation of accumulated cultural achievements and humanity's endless search for knowledge. Library collections include over 13 million books, making it the second largest library in China and one of the ten largest libraries in the world. The Shanghai library is widely known for its family histories, letters, contemporary Chinese and English periodicals, rare edition English works, and rubbings of stone inscriptions. You can also find selections of classical and con-temporary music, opera records, and tapes. Over 20 reading rooms are separated by subject area including: ancient books, integrated collections, cultural and literary documents, social sciences, natural sciences, foreign languages, and compact discs.
Reserve the books you want to check out over the internet, and a small trolley will bring your selection out from the stacks. You can follow the following link to the li-brary's Chinese website: www.libnet.sh.cn. The website introduces the library and its collections. Unfortunately, no English lan-guage website is available.
Address: 1555 Huaihai Zhonglu at the intersection of Gaoan Lu.
Telephone: 021-64455555
Hours off Operation: 8:30am - 8:30 pm
If you want a temporary library pass to get into the reading rooms, you will need to bring your passport and 10RMB. The library stops processing reading room passes after 5pm. For a one-year library card you will need to bring your passport and long-term Shanghai residence permit. Fees range between 10 RMB and 50 RMB depending on which collections you plan to use, and you may be asked to give a 100 RMB or 1,000 RMB deposit if you plan to check books out of the Chinese and foreign language collections, respectively.