Duan Cunrui (R) and his wife sort books at their store in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region on April 21. [Photo/Xinhua]

Duan Cunrui, a 69-year-old book collector, has managed his antique bookstore for more than 30 years from a two-story flat measuring 68 square meters, with nearly 100,000 books available.

“Reading is a necessity of life along with food, shelter, clothing and transportation,” Duan said.

For years, Duan has been reading books about traditional Chinese medicine along with ancient Chinese fiction.

“I guess even a doctor of Chinese medicine doesn’t really own more medical books than me.”

Founded in 1986, his bookstore, Literary World, has sold thousands of second-hand books to booklovers in Hohhot.

In 2003, Duan was recognized as one of the top 10 book enthusiasts in Inner Mongolia.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Duan, a worker in a transportation company, started to collect old books by taking trains leaving for Nanjing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chengdu.

Many years ago, he saw an elderly man carrying a stack of books wrapped in newspaper at a paper recycling stall. The man was bargaining with the seller over the 1-yuan ($0.15) deal. He paid a price five times as high to the old man and obtained the books for his bookstore.

As Duan typically holds on to his books for a long time, they often appreciate in value with some books selling for prices as high as 10,000 yuan.

In the early 1990s, Duan donated valuable books to the library of Peking University including a chromatograph edition of The Poetry of Su Dongpo stored by Lin Zexu (1785-1850) a statesman and philosopher during a turbulent period in Chinese history; a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) pocket copybook, and several handwritten copies of The Original Stories of Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms.

He also offered antique books about the annals of local chorography to libraries and colleges in Inner Mongolia.

“It’s a lifelong business for me, and I don’t know when I will retire,” Duan added.

Books line the stairs of Duan’s bookshop in Hohhot on April 21. [Photo/Xinhua]

A local customer (L) chats with Duan at the bookstore in Hohhot on April 21. [Photo/Xinhua]