Talk of the town

Russian author Yurily Ilyakhin(center) attends the Beijing fair to promote his book, China Spot by Spot. The Chinese edition was recently published.[Photo by Yang Yang/China Daily]

"We have books translated from Arabic to Chinese for kids. We also have classic works on our history and culture exhibited here."

Vijitha Yapa, former president of the Sri Lanka Book Publishers' Association, was checking books and packing them into boxes on Saturday afternoon. Although the book fair still had a day to go, they were leaving. All the samples of the 200 titles they brought from Sri Lanka were picked up by Chinese publishers.

"It's the first time we came to the book fair. I am happy that Chinese publishers are interested in our books," Yapa says.

His group is one of Sri Lanka's leading publishers.

"One important reason is the Silk Road concept of China. We are on the Silk Road and are very excited. And we want Chinese readers to know more about our country through books," Yapa says.

Penguin Random House was attracting readers with its design products in addition to books. Readers could buy mugs, cloth bags, card holders, rolling suitcases and even bicycles.

On a wall of the booth were books put against the background of a picture showing penguins riding on camels or wearing clothes styled after different periods in Chinese history.