Pu’er Coffee

 It’s been quite a while since I last wandered around Chengbei. I’ve always felt that this area was something of a coffee desert. But as the city continues to grow and more people live and work here, it’s clear that Chengbei, too, needs the kind of human warmth and care that only neighborhood cafés can offer. I’ve always believed that every community café is like a tiny star in the night sky—its light may be subtle, but it’s enough to illuminate your inner world. That feeling when a cup of coffee goes down and everything instantly feels brighter… who really understands that better than us? The café I want to talk about today is Retracing Coffee, located at No. 120 Huayuangang Street, Gongshu District, Hangzhou. It had been sitting in my saved list for quite some time, and I finally found a moment to come here just for a proper cup of coffee. As soon as I drove onto Huayuangang Street, I spotted it. The quiet, understated storefront immediately draws your eye—exactly the kind of pr...

 Not long ago, I went to Qiandao Lake to enjoy the autumn scenery during the off-peak travel season. Even though it was already winter, this year Hangzhou had been unusually slow to turn cold. To me, the low season is actually the right way to experience Qiandao Lake. The trees shift through layers of color, and the lake and mountains reveal nature at its most effortless. From the moment I stepped out of the high-speed rail station, even the air felt more “health-boosting” than Hangzhou’s—haha. It’s an ideal destination for a quiet weekend escape. Whenever I travel to an unfamiliar city, one of my rituals is to seek out local coffee shops. For me, cafés are a kind of unspoken link between myself and a city. This habit has become deeply ingrained in how I travel—it’s a way of getting closer to local culture and creating a personal, irreplaceable memory of a place. That said, based on everything I could find beforehand, there was only one café in Qiandao Lake that truly felt worth...

 A few days ago, I called Ms. Yang, the owner of the Beigui Coffee Warehouse branch at the Northern Wetland Park. I told her that our magazine wanted to host a coffee salon there. She agreed warmly but suggested avoiding weekends, as the place gets crowded and might disrupt the sharing session. Moved by her enthusiasm, I decided to visit her café in advance. White clouds drifted across the blue sky. The dawn redwoods and other green trees in Pu’er’s Northern Wetland Park together painted the picture of “the season of orange and green” from Su Shi’s poem. At 11 a.m., a few elderly visitors were sunbathing and sipping their coffee inside the Beigui Coffee Warehouse. The young barista had opened the shop right on time at 9:30, quietly waiting for customers. Her name is Xiaotong, and her shy, youthful smile is endearing. Young barista Xiaotong Several seniors had come from Sichuan to spend the winter in Pu’er. The warm winter sun felt comforting on their backs. When the sound of drum...