Zhang Yu JeniZhang13@163.com THE 7th Shenzhen Book Fair is set to launch today, blending literature with technology, city flowers, and major sports events to create a city-wide cultural celebration. Scheduled to run for five days until Monday, the fair will take place during both the 15th National Games and the city’s annual bougainvillea viewing period. It will adopt a “1+N” format — one main venue and multiple subvenues — to encourage reading participation across Shenzhen. The main venue will be the Shenzhen Book City CBD Store and its west square, covering approximately 49,000 square meters. Additional locations include Book City branches in Luohu, Nanshan, Longgang, and Longhua districts, as well as cultural sites such as Eyes of the GBA, Qianniao Books, and Zimo Books. Organizers have gathered more than 600 domestic and international publishers, offering some 400,000 publications and 60,000 cultural and creative products. More than 100 cultural events — including book recommendations, author meet-ups, tech demonstrations, and creative workshops — will be held throughout the fair. Featured authors include Wang Xufeng, Yang Hongying, Liu Tong, and Ma Liang, who is known as Anthony, among more than 20 others. The west square of the Shenzhen Book City CBD Store is divided into northern and southern sections. The northern section includes a publications area, a smart lifestyle products zone, stationery and creative products, and a pop-up bookstore tour. The southern section will host the 2nd Illustration & Handwritten Journal Festival, a film market, a sports & culture interactive zone, a cultural leisure zone, and a family-oriented BOOKWALK area designed as an imaginative “story town” for children aged 0-8. The Shenzhen Book Fair is organized under the umbrella of the Southern China Book Fair, one of the country’s most prominent book fairs. | 