Readers check on books at the 2019 Shanghai Book Fair. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/chinadaily.com.cn]

According to the organizers, this year's Shanghai Book Fair will have its exhibition space expanded to an unprecedented 30,000 square meters.

Besides the 25,000-square-meter main venue at Shanghai Exhibition \r\nCenter, the fair will also take place in three new commercial complexes \r\nin the city: the 800 SHOW creative industry center in Jing'an district, \r\nMusic Valley in Hongkou district and Sinan Mansions in Huangpu district.

According to Xu Jiong, head of the municipal administration for press\r\n and publication, the book fair will highlight a number of new \r\nbookstores, each of which has a distinctive specialty and \r\ncharacteristic.

The book fair will also introduce a new online map featuring \r\nbrick-and-mortar bookstores in the city. The map was developed by \r\nMeituan, an integrated online service provider, and Shanghai Observer, a\r\n news portal.

The municipality has called on publishers and exhibitors to cut down their exhibits at the fair.

"We encourage readers to flip through the books at the fair and make \r\ntheir purchases online so that the books will be delivered straight to \r\ntheir homes," Xu said.

This year, the fair will invite for the first time online bookstores \r\nsuch as JD and e-commerce platforms on short-video sharing platform \r\nDouyin to participate in the showcase.