BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The 2013 Beijing Book Fair will open on Jan. 11, featuring 500,000 books by over 650 publishers, including more than 60 overseas publishers.

More than 3,500 book stores and government procurement agencies from both home and abroad will also attend the fair. Nearly 40 purchasers are from out side the Chinese mainland, including the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Australia, Canada, India, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The fair will be staged in a exhibition venue of 50,410 square meters in the China International Exhibition Center.

According to the Fair organizer, 2,350 exhibition booths have so far been reserved, and the 2013 Fair will for the first time provide retail services, and sell second-hand books on discount.

Beijing Book Fair, supervised by the General Administration of Press and Publication, is organized by Publishers Association of China and the Books and Periodicals Distribution Association of China. The 2013 Beijing Book Fair will be the 25th of its kind.