Nowadays, countryside coffee shops , which symbolize “poetry and the far-off places”, are spreading at an unprecedented speed into Qingdao’s villages, big or small.

Among Qingdao’s agriculture-related districts or county-level cities, merely Laoshan District is home to more than 100 countryside shops, and the West Coast New Area boasts as many as 65 shops. They either hide themselves amid green mountains and lucid waters, or lie in the depth of a courtyard converted from a century-old stone-built house. Characterized by their unique spatial forms and consumption experiences, these shops are quietly changing the landscape of villages and helping villages to be better visited. As a result, idle buildings in quite a few villages in Qingdao have taken on a new look following the opening of these shops.

Located in Beizhai Neighborhood, Laoshan District, Shiliu Cafe, is converted from a deserted yacht building yard into an industrial-style coffee factory with an area of 3,300 square meters. It has emerged as a unique place combining industrial memory with modern recreations, and invites a continuous stream of visitors and enormous attention. Many countryside shops in Laoshan District, West Coast New Area and Jimo District integrate such agricultural products as cherries and apricots with coffee and snacks, and make farm produce seen by the public in a more modern and stylish manner. An increasing number of city dwellers come to see and know about villages by drinking coffee, doing handwork, making tea around a stove and tasting agricultural produce.

     It is worth mentioning that countryside coffee shops have not only reshaped villages in terms of both spaces and functions, but also paved an utterly new way for many young people to work for rural development. They can take advantage of coffee to settle down in the countryside and engage in coffee-related business to help revitalize rural areas.  (Yi Tao)

A singer stationed in a coffee shop in Jimo Longquan Neighborhood is softly chanting.  By Xing Zhifeng