Chongqing - International skincare brand Aesop has opened its latest cultural campaign in southwest China by temporarily replacing store shelves with books, as part of its 2026 Women's Literature Library project in Chongqing and Wuhan.

Two visitors snap photos outside the store, showing off the limited-edition canvas tote bags they received at the event. (Photo/Zheng Ran)

At Aesop's first store in Chongqing, located in Longfor Beicheng Paradise Walk, visitors arriving between March 23 and March 27 can reserve a visit and receive a free book of their choice. Instead of a conventional retail launch marked by product displays and opening ceremonies, the brand's Chongqing debut featured walls lined with books, while staff stamped title pages with a custom seal and sprayed them with a woody fragrance.

Consumers gather outside Aesop’s Chongqing store, pausing to snap photos at the entrance. (Photo/Zheng Ran)

One visitor, Ms. Meng, said she had expected to see a typical opening filled with products. "However, when Aesop opened, there was no grand opening ceremony," she said. "Instead, there was a whole wall of books," and a limited-edition minimalist canvas tote bag prepared as a gift for customers in the city.

Visitors explore books inside Aesop’s Chongqing store during the Women’s Literature Library event. (Photo/Zheng Ran)

Staff at the store said the official opening would bring a full return of products to the shelves. He added that while many consumers know Aesop for its body care range, the brand's facial care products are also a key part of the offering, and invited customers to visit the store to experience them after the formal opening.

The event comes as Chongqing pushes to build itself into an international consumption center city. Longfor Beicheng Paradise Walk, located in the heart of the Guanyinqiao business district, completed a more than 600-day renovation in September 2025. Data shows the upgrade introduced more than 150 brands, including over 80 making their first appearance in Chongqing, while raising the share of first stores and flagship outlets by more than 50%.

The newly upgraded Longfor Beicheng Paradise Walk shopping complex in Chongqing, China. (Photo/Zheng Ran)

Aesop, founded in Melbourne by Dennis Paphitis, is widely known for design-led retail spaces that vary from city to city. The brand said its stores are shaped by local architecture, literature, and cultural references rather than uniform branding. 

"We sell the same products globally, but they need to connect with local consumers according to the characteristics and culture of different places," Paphitis said. He added that Aesop aims to work with what already exists and integrate into the core and structure of the street, rather than simply placing logos onto a space.

That local approach is central to this year's campaign, titled "See the Mountains, See the Waters, See Her." The phrase refers both to the geography of Chongqing- often called China's mountain city because of its steep terrain- and Wuhan, known domestically as a "river city" for its location along the Yangtze and Han rivers. Aesop said the imagery also serves as a metaphor for women's qualities: mountain-like humility, resilience and endurance, and water-like flexibility, intelligence, and healing.

The 2026 edition features nine invited female reading ambassadors from different fields, including media, academia, literature, art, science, and film, who helped shape a 36-book list. The Chongqing stop includes a city-specific selection, among them Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper by British food writer Fuchsia Dunlop, a memoir and exploration of Chinese food culture rooted in her experience as a student at Sichuan University in the 1990s.

For some visitors, the books offered a more personal connection than a conventional product launch. One attendee who works professionally with words chose Ursula K. Le Guin's The Wave in the Mind and said the book matched her current state of mind. "I once thought writing was about finding my own voice," she said. "Reading Le Guin made me understand that writing is about finding my language."

Aesop announced on March 23 that the Women's Literature Library had officially reopened for 2026. Since the global project began in 2021, the company said it has given away more than 115,000 books, with the stated aim of amplifying women's voices and using literature to build community across cities.