Photo, taken on Aug. 23, shows a book cafe next to the canal in Hangzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province. (Xinhua/ Shi Jianxue)

Located in a historic district along the Hangzhou Canal, recently, newly built "riverside book cafes" opened to the public free of charge. There are nine cabin-style "riverside book cafés," where citizens and tourists are provided with various kinds of books for free, covering topics from science, travel, entertainment, fashion, classics, life, finance, economy and history of the canal.