Keeping up appearances

Pingnan county is famous for its wooden arched bridges. The traditional design and practices for building these bridges-together with Qingyuan and Taishun counties in Zhejiang and some other sites in Fujian province-were included on UNESCO's list of world intangible cultural heritage in 2009.

More than 20 of Pingnan's villages have maintained the traditional architectural styles of the ancient Central China Plain, where the villagers originally migrated from.

Zhou Fenfang, former chairwoman of the county's committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, says that the county's efforts to protect cultural heritage started two decades ago.

Architect Huang Hanmin says Fujian has the richest collection of traditional dwellings that have made the best of the local environment and climate, while reflecting the cultural connotations of the local history.

"Traditional dwellings are close to humans. We can learn how ancient people lived through them," he says.

According to Qian, the bookstore chain aims to open more branches in rural areas of Yunnan, Guizhou and Zhejiang provinces in the near future.