General Search Engines
Not only Baidu and Google, but WeChat’s “Soso” can also be used as a search engine.
Add the format pdf/epub/mobi/azw3/txt after the book title.
For example:
Traditional Chinese Internal Medicine pdf;
Traditional Chinese Internal Medicine filetype:pdf;
Traditional Chinese Internal Medicine “http://pan.baidu.com/s”;
Specialized Search Engines / Resource Libraries
There are many professional engines and resource libraries in the answers to several questions below. Using these tools can enable more efficient searching and downloading. You can find such tools by searching for keywords like “ebook”, “resources”, “download” on Zhihu.
https://www.zhihu.com/question/357864509
https://www.zhihu.com/question/454529000
Search Scripts
With this script, you can search multiple sources at once. You need to first install “Tampermonkey” (a tool for managing scripts), then install the “Douban Resource Download Master” script.
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/387251122
Universal Taobao
As shown in the image, directly contact the seller and send them the ISBN (if you don’t know what it is, click here) of the book you need. Most ebooks cost around 5 RMB.
WeChat Reading
Recently, many books have started to be available on WeChat Reading. You can give it a try.
Summary
After messing around with ebooks for so many years, I’ve basically developed this habit: first ask senior students, if not available, use scripts to search; if still not found, then buy on Taobao.
After all, time is more valuable than money, but how exactly to proceed depends on personal preference and wisdom.
Release Date: February 6, 2022