China is a country about tea. It is where tea originally comes from. I recently read that, after water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. Not surprising at all, given that China has more than a billion people. Well, I drink tea myself and billions of other people in Europe and Asia.
Ever since the trade went global, as well as the still-ongoing economic revolution of China, many young local Chinese have hunkered for something new and hip to waste their time and money on. This something new and hip has deep roots in the Western world civilisation: Coffee.
In Xiamen, the rise of the popularity of the coffee drink cannot be ignored. The coffee culture has slowly taken its roots in the Siming District on Yundang Lu, also known as the Xidi Coffee Street.
It’s my last day in Xiamen and my original plan was to get out of town to visit the Toulou’s. However, my 72-hour free visa visit does not allow me to travel outside the Xiamen prefecture. So I did some more research on places to go within Xiamen and read about Xidi Coffee Street.
I was intrigued because China is a tea country and from what I know not many people really drink coffee. It’s something new and a drink introduced by the outside world from the west.
I went here on the public bus. For just 1 CNY you can travel anywhere with the bus within Xiamen city. Really amazingly cheap. Using my phones’ maps I managed to locate Yundang Road aka Xidi Coffee Street. The road is right beside the water, on the artificial Yundang Lake and Park.
The area is quite nice, spacious, clean and green and with a backdrop of the high rise buildings in the distance. Yundang Street or Coffee Street is what I call an expat and yuppy place. There are many cafe restaurants with outdoor terraces here, many of which are coffee places but quite a number are really restaurants that serve coffee as well during the day. There is even a Filipino joint called Halo-Halo which I didn’t really check out. No need, I know what Halo-Halo is.
Basically, the Coffee Street caters to the guests of the hotels and the business offices, hence my comment on expatriates (expat) and young professionals (yuppy) frequenting the cafes here.
I also have the feeling that the street is like a place to be seen by the locals. With the upscale retail boutiques sandwiched between the cafes and the expensive (sports) cars lining up on the street, what more could we think of? It would have been perfect if the street is pedestrianised, but then those expensive cars will have to be parked someplace not visible. Not sure if these entitled lads would like that at all. After all, having a fancy car is like having a pretty girlfriend, a sleek job or business that you own that you so desperately want to show off.
Nonetheless, I can agree that it’s a good place to hang out and chill especially if you are young and coming from middle to the upper-class background, this is the place to go.
Travel Period: December 2016
Destination: Xiamen, Fujian, China
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