Shanghai Daily News

Hundreds of students lined up outside the city's biggest bookstore early Saturday morning for a chance to be among the first in Shanghai to buy a copy of the sixth Harry Potter book.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" went on sale at Shanghai Book Mall at 7am, the same time it debuted at stores around the world.

The launch was the second time Chinese Harry Potter fans have been able to buy the book in its original English version at the same time as their counterparts overseas.

Other major city booksellers also opened stores two hours ahead of usual to celebrate the event of the season.

Shanghai Book Mall said it sold more than 600 copies on Saturday, tripling the number of books sold on the first day two years ago when the fifth Harry Potter novel hit the bookshelves.

A grade nine student surnamed Yao from Shanghai Qibao Middle School was the first of about 100 anxious fans who lined up in front of the store before 7am to buy a copy.

"I am fascinated by Harry's adventures and also touched by the friendship between him and his friends," said the 17-year-old, who arrived at the bookstore at 5am.

Yao said he can understand most of the book with some help from the dictionary as the language is quite simple.

The store had sold at least 900 copies of the book by yesterday afternoon, according to an official surnamed Qian, who is in charge of imported books at Shanghai Book Mall.

Most of the buyers preferred the American version of the book, despite costing 20 yuan (US$2.40) more than the British version.

"The American version ... seems to be more popular here given the popularity of American English," Qian said.

The store will be able to resupply the American version tomorrow, Qian said.

Liang Jianrui, an official with the China National Publication Import and Export Group, China's largest foreign language book importer, said the book's American version will soon be sold out based on the sales over the weekend across the country.

Liang's firm, the nation's only importer of the book's American version, ordered 5,000 copies of the American version in March for the Saturday release.

He said the company has placed a second order for the American English version, but he doesn't know when that order will be filled.

About 55,000 copies of the book were imported for sale across the county.

China International Book Trading Co, one of the two Chinese importers of the book this year, said it was receiving re-supply orders yesterday from some provincial bookstores that had underestimated interest in the boy wizard.

Liang with China National Publication also estimated that around 60,000 to 70,000 copies of the sixth book in its original version will be sold in the mainland, compared to the 50,000 copies of the fifth Potter saga in 2003.

The Chinese-language version of the sixth volume is expected to arrive in stores on October 15, according to People's Literature Publishing House, the book's Chinese version publisher.