Of all the publications filling the shelves of shops in China's increasingly open literature market, travel books are currently the favorite read among Chinese bookworms.

"Chinese versions of backpackers' bibles like the 'Lonely Planet' series have been the most profitable. Such guides can be priced at almost twice that of novels of equal length, and are selling like hot cakes," said sources within the Shanghai Sanlian Book Store at the ongoing Shanghai Book Fair.

The week long fair at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre has attracted more than 80,000 visitors since it opened on Saturday when Typhoon Matsa was sweeping across the region.

More than 120 Chinese publishing houses are selling books at the fair, putting up large advertisements and shouting through loudhailers, thus changing the atmosphere into that of a supermarket on a Saturday afternoon.

Besides selling, they also expect to buy the rights to foreign books at a smaller-sized copyright transaction fair to be held this weekend, which is to involve more than 40 foreign publishing houses.

"The appetite of Chinese readers for foreign recipes, best-selling novels and management know-how is getting bigger," said the source surnamed Li.

"Conversely, only a very limited number of Chinese books have found a market in the West," he added.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Taiwan Province and Southeast Asia have traditionally been the major overseas market of Chinese mainland books.

But the future looks bright, according to Wu Jinjun, an official with the Shanghai Municipal Press and Publication Administration.

"Our statistics show that publishing houses in the United States and Europe have shown an increasing interest in books about traditional Chinese culture," she said.

"Transactions of book rights taking place between Shanghai and other places in the world are continuously on the increase, with the exchanges going both ways," she added.

Shanghai publishing houses are now conducting transactions on book rights on a more frequent basis with countries such as the United States, Britain, Germany and France.

 (China Daily August 10, 2005)