The Beijing Center’s library began in 1998 with just 200 books. Now housed in a beautiful new space decorated in traditional Chinese style, it has grown to 17,000 volumes in open stacks. In addition, there is a collection of journals that includes China News Analysis, academic journals such as Monumenta Serica, China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, and periodicals such as The Economist and The Far Eastern Economic Review.

The main collection of books about China written in English is the largest such collection in Beijing and one of the largest in China. Nearly 1,000 volumes are added annually, selected among books published in North America, Europe and China. The main subject headings are Art & Architecture, Biographies, Business & Economics, Culture & Society, Ethnology, Film & Theater, History, Language, Literature, Media & Journalism, Philosophy & Religion, Photography, Political sciences, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Travel, Women’s Studies, Wushu, and Martial Arts.

The library also hosts a special history collection open to scholars on the history of Christianity in China in the late Ming and Qing dynasties. This collection concentrates on primary sources and includes books in Chinese, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin, and other European languages.