Chenjiapu Bookstore is simply yet tastefully furnished, a clean, well-lit place that houses more than 20,000 books. [PHOTO BY DIUDIU/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Zhang and his team retained the basic size and wooden structure but divided the space into several sections for various uses.

On the ground floor visitors can read, enjoy coffee and deserts and chat while lounging on couches, on the pads set on the big concrete steps, or in the half-open cafe curtained by hemp ropes, whose color "is similar to those cob walls in the ancient village", Zhang says.

The hemp rope curtain on the three sides allows cool wind in the mountains to run through, so that even in hot summer the cafe is a comfortable place to languish.

On the second floor is a small closed space that can be used to read or meditate, as the founder of the bookstore Qian Xiaohua wishes. Zhang built a window on the roof so that natural light can shine through, "a space of ritual", as he puts it.