San Lian Bookstore was the amalgamation of three well-known bookstores: Life Bookstore, Reader Publishing House and Xinzhi Bookstore, which were respectively established by Zhou Taofen, a well-known writer and journalist, Li Gongpu, a writer and patriot, and Qian Junrui, former vice minister of Ministry of Education. San Lian Bookstore is famous for its social science and humanities publications in China, especially the magazine "Reading", which had great influence among numerous readers and Chinese culture. It was headquartered in Beijing with many branches in Shanghai and Hongkong etc.