Capital Library

By china tour on 2009-12-17 17:03:00 | Beijing Tours

The Capital Library was located at the famous Imperail College(Guozijian), then moved to the new site in 2001 funded by the Beijing Municipal Government. Capital Library is the central house of public library owned by the Beijing government.
The library has a long and complicated history. In 1924, the Metropiltan Popular Library and part of the Metropolitan Library were transferred to the former site of National Accademy near Hair Alley. Three years later the Ministry of Education consolidated and renamed those two libraries as No.1 Municipality Popular Library. The name was changed several times, such as the First Normal Library and Beijig City Library. Before the liberarion of Beijing, Zhongshan Library or Revolutionary Library which was in the Zhongshan Park west to Tian'anmen became a branch.
The People's Government took over the library in 1949 and renamed it Beijing Municipal Library. In 1953, it was moved from Hair Alley to West Flower Gate and Xidan branch was opened at Hair Alley. In 1956, the library was moved to the Imeprial College(Guozijian) and renamed as the Capital Library.
The Capital Library now is the largest public library in Beijing and has over 3,500,000 books on various aspects, politics, science, culture and history. It, as well, plays an important role in expending library network in Beijing suburban districts and countries. The library can receive more than 1,500,000 visitors per year besides over 200 exhibitions on all sorts of material, especially arts exhibitions of other countries which always attract hundreds of citizens in Beijing.
The library is developing and optimize its network and is really important in shaping the cultural structure of the society. The goal of Capital Library is to introduce the brilliant Chinese culture to the world and also lead the Chinese citizens to know the world. So far, the library is contributing a lot as a bridge in culture communication.