Coffee Time in China

I'm currently living in the city of Xiamen 厦门, but spent the previous academic year teaching at a university in Zhengzhou 郑州 in Henan Province in central China. I just came across this photo taken at a coffee shop appropriately named Coffee Time in Zhengzhou that I used to go to ocassionally. I met a friend there who loved the artistic coffee design so much she almost couldn't bear to drink it. 



Of course, coffee drinking is a relatively recent pasttime in China which has traditionally been (and largely remains) a tea drinking nation. However, coffee is definitely experiencing an upsurge, mostly among young, affluent Chinese. Nowadays, every major Chinese city hosts at least one Starbucks (big cities will have several) as well as several local coffee shops.

Starbucks recently opened its 500th store in China and there's probably still plenty of room for expansion in the future. While relatively few Chinese have become coffee afficionados, many like the various coffee-based drinks that shops like Starbucks offer. More importantly, they enjoy the upscale atmosphere (Starbucks drinks sell for about the equivalent price as they do in the U.S. which is outrageously expensive for most Chinese). While I personally would like Starbucks and other foreign luxury brands to offer their goods at slightly cheaper prices to be affordable to more Chinese (not to mention myself), this might actually hurt their business in China since the affluent seem to want to pay high Western prices as a status symbol of their newfound wealth.

I also enjoy the coffee shop atmosphere, but unfortunately there are no coffee shops close to where I live although there are several in Xiamen (including one which bills itself as China's biggest Starbucks). I guess I'll just have to wait and in the meantime, do as the vast majority of Chinese do - drink tea.