Great Wall Books & Art

Unfortunately, this store is now closed. They sell books online at

This bookstore really made our visit to Chinatown worthwhile. Compared to our experiences from multiple visits to Chinatown in San Francisco, we found LA’s Chinatown to be a bit underwhelming — and just as we were about to leave in a mild cloud of disappointment, we found this awesome store.
My wife stocked up on a bunch of Chinese magazines for $ 1.00 each, as well as 4 Chinese-​English culture books to aid her in teaching. The books ended up being 30% off, much to our surprise! We left with a full backpack of great books and magazines to keep my wife and in-​laws (all 3 are Mainland Chinese) occupied when they get tired of English!
The store carries a broad range of books, including books for learners of Chinese, Taoism, acupuncture, travel guides, and even a surprisingly large section on Tibetan medicine and healing. There are also tons of Chinese magazines (both recent and back issues) on current events, military tech, science, etc.
This store is a serious contender for Best Chinatown Bookstore in my book — it is edged out slightly by Eastwind Books in San Francisco, but just slightly!

Wow, I was really surprised to find this place near the edge of Chinatown. It’s completely different from other Chinatown stores, bright and open, with a pretty good collection of books at great prices.
I’m learning Chinese and found several useful books in the Chinese-​learning section.
My one complaint, which I realize doesn’t apply to most customers, is the lack of signage in English. There is an easy-​to-​find section of textbooks and dictionaries for Chinese learners, but it would be helpful to see a section of graded readers or easy materials, clearly marked for newbies like me.
Overall, though, I can’t mark them down for that. This is an excellent store for Chinatown, and I’m really happy I found it.

If you like out of print mainland books, then this is the only place in LA, as far as I know, that has them. They specialize in classical literature, traditional medicine, religion, history, fiction, and martial arts. There are some children’s books and art books, as well as artwork (stone sculpture) and VCDs. Mainland books are 60% off the marked price (either the sticker, which looks like it’s in US $, or the printed RMB price.)

I love this place, so surprised there are no other reviews. First, they have a great selection of acupuncture and TCM text books, both in English and Chinese. Their prices are also much better than what you might find in a school bookstore or in some cases online. They also have a very decent collection of Kung-​fu and wushu VCD’s.
Then for Chinese speaking peeps, they have aisle after aisle of novels, magazines, movies and music. All the things one might find in a bookstore in China actually. Not a lot of chotchskys like the other stores in Chinatown, but there are some.
Check it out for sure !!!