A passenger walks past an advertisement for Dangdang.com in Shanghai, Nov 3, 2011. [Photo by Jing Wei/Asianewsphoto]

China's major online bookstore Dangdang.com has announced on Tuesday that it plans to open 1,000 physical bookstores around China in the next three years.

Concrete steps to realize the plan are already underway, as its first brick-and-mortar book outlet will soon open in Changsha city next month. The first offline store, occupying 1,200 square meters, will offer books at the same prices as the online store.

According to Chengdu Commercial Daily, Zhang Wei, the assistant president of Dangdang, said, "The offline bookstore we are opening is not the traditional bookstore anymore, but a cultural complex instead. It will come in the forms of mall, supermarket-style bookstore, county-level bookstore and others. Online and offline sales will be fused together."

At the beginning of this month, the American online retail giant Amazon launched its first physical bookstore "Amazon Books" at University Village in Seattle. The move aimed to drive sales online through offline stores and to better sell its products like the Kindle and Fire Phone.

Dangdang also plans to stimulate its online book sales in this way. It is said that its founder Li Guoqing was negotiating with many offline chain bookstores on the price issue and had promised a protective margin several months ago.

In recent years, physical bookstores have found it hard to survive in the Internet era. Dangdang's move of bringing online and offline sales together, is expected to make a difference.