2026 Shanghai Book Fair, August 12-18, Features 1,420 Events, Up 12.1%

The 2026 Shanghai Book Fair will be held from August 12 to 18. This year's fair establishes a dual main venue format at the Shanghai Exhibition Center and Shanghai Book City. Tickets for the main venue at the Shanghai Exhibition Center are priced at 10 yuan for the day session (9:00-16:00) and 5 yuan for the night session (16:30-21:00). Tickets go on sale at 18:00 on August 5 via Damai and Taopiaopiao. The fair requires real-name purchase, with entry via ID card verification after binding. In 2026, Alipay's quick check-in feature is newly added to allow contactless verification and reduce queuing time. Heilongjiang Province is invited for the first time as the guest province, bringing 3,460 selected books and 74 premium journals. Author Chi Zijian will attend with her representative work The Last Quarter of the Moon, which won the seventh Mao Dun Literature Prize; Er Gen, winner of the fourth Mao Dun Literature Newcomer Award for Online Literature, will also present his novel Yi Nian Yong Heng. Heilongjiang has planned 37 events, including a presentation of an ecological monograph on northeastern birds, a signing session with Olympic champion Zhang Hong, sessions on Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun in Shanghai, and reminiscences of educated youth. The province will also display intangible cultural heritage works. The sales area offers Longjiang flavors such as black soil rice, birch sap, Modern ice pops, and soybean ice cream. The I Have an Acre in Longjiang project allows Shanghai residents to claim land online, customize orders, and trace the entire process. The China Publishing Group will present more than 6,000 titles and nearly 65,000 copies of premium books from its 23 member publishers, along with a special discount zone featuring over 2,000 titles and more than 16,000 copies. Shanghai Book City will host a theme event titled Literature Reads the World, Museums See the Mountains and Rivers, inviting nine cultural institutions: Hanyang Mausoleum Museum, Qingzhou Museum, Dongguan Museum, Yinxu Museum, China Grand Canal Museum, Jincheng Museum, National Museum of Chinese Writing, Shanghai History Museum, and Hubei Provincial Museum. During the fair, a director and author dialogue will be held daily at 19:30, focusing on archaeology and historical culture. The reading events across the city cover libraries, bookstores, and public cultural spaces, totaling about 1,420 events, a 12.1% increase from 2025. Among them, the Shanghai Exhibition Center main venue hosts 563 events, Shanghai Book City hosts 84, professional sub-venues host 134, and district sub-venues host 639. To mark the fifth anniversary of the fair's mascot Comma, the fair has invited East China Normal University Press, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Press to design six types of Comma themed package tickets, priced from 48 to 98 yuan. The East China Normal University Press set includes a rotating fridge magnet, luggage tag, keychain, shoulder bag, and paper carving book; the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Press set includes a fortune tips plush keychain and coin purse. In addition, reader-benefit coupons and discounted book-purchase offers supported by relevant institutions will continue.