Eslite Bookstore (誠品) opened its first overseas outlet in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay area on Saturday.
“Hong Kong is like a second home to me and I hope the new shop can help Hong Kongers show their friendly natures to each other,” Eslite founder Robert Wu (吳清友) said at the bookshop’s opening ceremony.
The new shop occupies floors 8 to 10 of The Hysan Place department store.
It will open for 24 hours every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but keep regular business hours on the other days of the week.
It is the first bookstore in Hong Kong to operate through the night.
It is hoped that the Eslite Bookstore will become a highlight of Hysan Place and a new landmark in Hong Kong, said Irene Lee (利薀蓮), executive chairperson of the Hysan Development Co (希慎集團) board.
The shop attracted a large crowd on its opening day, with one shopper commenting that the shop is very comfortable and unlike any other bookstore in Hong Kong.
Another young shopper made similar remarks, but said: “The books seem a bit expensive.”
Causeway Bay is dubbed “Little Japan” because of the amount of Japanese merchandise on sale in the area, as well as shopping centers like Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Store and Sogo Department Store that operated there in the past.
The district also used to be home to large numbers of Japanese expats, especially when Hong Kong was under British colonial rule.
However, Taiwanese and Hong Kong companies have started to move into the traditional Japanese enclave in recent years.
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
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