The Xinhua Bookstore was founded on April 24, 1937, in the Qingliang Mountains in Yan'an. Communist revolutionaries opened the first store at their Shaanxi Province base.

Late Chinese leader Mao Zedong inscribed the four Chinese characters standing for "Xinhua Bookstore" in 1939. After 1949, the Xinhua Bookstore moved to Beijing and later expanded to other parts of the country.

It is the only bookstore chain that has thousands of outlets across the nation but has seen its influence wane in recent years as private bookstores and other chains mushroom in the market economy.

Over the past 70 years, Xinhua bookstores have been instrumental in promoting governmental policies, cultural, scientific and technological information.

To date, the Xinhua Bookstore system has grown into a mammoth distributing and retailing conglomerate, owning 3,100 subsidiary companies and 14,000 chain stores, and employing a workforce of 150,000.

(China Daily June 5, 2007)