Covering an area of 7.24 hectares, the National Library of China in Beijing is the largest library in Asia, and one of the largest in the world with a grand collection of books. It holds the largest and among the richest worldwide collections of Chinese literature and historical documents. It is divided into south library, north library and ancient books library including 31.19 million volumes with more than 2 million volumes of rare ancient books.

The gigantic-book-shaped new building started in 2004. It has 46 reading rooms and 2,900 seats for various kinds of readers. Among them there are 23 reading rooms with open stacks and 2.1 million volumes. It is open to the public all the year, with an average of 13,600 readers and 70,000 circulated volumes every day.

The National Library of China's collection is the largest in Asia. Its holdings of more than 33.78 million items also make it one of the world's largest libraries. The library contains inscribed tortoise shells and bones, ancient manuscripts, and block-printed volumes. Among the most prized collections of the National Library of China are rare and precious documents and records from past dynasties in Chinese history. With the functions of the collecting, processing, storage, research, utilization and dissemination of knowledge information, the National Library of China is a comprehensive research library and a national repository of publications.

Ticket: Free

Address: 33 Zhongguancun Nandajie, Haidian District

Bus Route: Take Bus No. 319, 320, 332, 634, 645, 653, 716, 717, 727, 732, 804, 808, and 814 to the National Library Stop.