[Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhang Zuozhen, general manager of Joint Publishing Bookstores, says his store switched to 24-hour operations in 2014, and not only did this earn praise from Premier Li Keqiang, but it also performed very well. It earned income of 20.5 million yuan ($3.1 million) that year, up 58 percent from a year earlier, making a profit of 2.6 million yuan, a jump of 130 percent.

The premier wrote a letter in April last year to the bookstore that says: "A bookstore is a spiritual home. It should light up roads for night readers, spur reading and spread the warmth of knowledge."

Cai says that on average the Chinese read around five printed books a year. But the country's leaders want people to become even more avid readers.

Xu Jiong, director of the Shanghai Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, says the municipal government spent 50 million yuan over 2012-15 to support bookstores, and is offering tax incentives as well.

"Another 29.5 million yuan came from the central government," says Xu, adding that the policies gave hope to bookstore owners.

Separately, Cai says that at the state level, a total of 5 billion yuan worth of tax incentives was planned in 2013 for bookstores that will be effective through 2017.

He says that as of now there are 870,000 people engaged in the book retailing business and the gross value of publications sold annually works out to 60 billion yuan.

"It may not be a big industry, but it is much valued," he says.