Beijing has recently been declared China's "Harry-est City" by Joyo
Amazon, the largest Chinese-language bookstore in the world and a
major stockist of the
Harry Potter books.
Other cities on the shortlist are Huizhou, Zhuhai and Guangzhou
in Guangdong Province, Shanghai, and Wuhan in Central China's Hubei
Province.
The cities were chosen for their sales of JK Rowling's Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh book in the
series. Shi Tao, vice-president of Joyo Amazon, says that Harry
Potter 7 (the Chinese version) has sold three times more
copies than its predecessors.
The "Harry-est Town" in China is an honor given to the city that
has ordered the most copies of Harry Potter and the Deadly
Hallows from Joyo Amazon on a per capita basis, according to
Shi Tao.
So far the Chinese edition of the previous six Harry
Potter installments have reportedly sold over 9 million copies
across China. Since its first installment came out in 1997, the
Harry Potter series has been translated into 65 languages
and sold at least 300 million copies.
(China Daily December 12, 2007)
