TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Eslite’s Songyan store in southern Taipei will take over as the bookstore chain’s next 24-hour branch after its Xinyi store closes at the end of the year.

The announcement was made by Eslite Chairwoman Mercy Wu (吳旻潔) on Thursday (May 4) amid a wild guessing game, with some pitting it against the branch in the commercial district near the MRT Zhongshan Station.

Located in the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Xinyi District and next to the Taipei Dome, the Songyan store has tremendous commercial potential, CNA quoted Chen Yu-hsiu (陳玉秀), as saying. It also sits in an area with hotels nearby, two movie theaters, a cluster of restaurants, and a historic site-turned-railway museum.

It will be the third time Eslite has operated a bookstore around the clock, with the volume of its publications to be tripled, according to Wu. Taiwan became the first in the world to run a 24-hour bookshop, Eslite Dunnan, in 1999, followed by Eslite Xinyi in 2020.

Wu also unveiled an initiative, to kick off in June, that will see Eslite’s bookstores in Asia take turns providing nonstop service. A total of 24 outlets, including those across Taiwan and in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, will participate in the event, per UDN.

The Taiwanese bookstore chain also announced in March it would open ten more stores in the country this year. A spate of events will also be held throughout the year to mark Eslite’s 18th anniversary.