Young people flock to Guiyang on holiday for specialty coffee

A city that does not grow a single coffee bean is now home to over 3,000 coffee shops. Having nurtured multiple winners of international and national barista competitions, Guiyang has earned the title "city of coffee champions". During the 2026 May Day holiday, Guiyang's coffee shops became a popular destination for many tourists.

For coffee enthusiast Wang Jing, her phone has saved the addresses of more than a dozen coffee shops in Guiyang. She especially enjoys searching for cafes tucked into the alleyways of old residential communities: "Turn a corner, and you might find a beautifully designed little coffee shop hidden downstairs. The barista hand-brews your coffee while explaining the beans' flavor profile. After finishing your cup, you can just walk next door for a bowl of beef noodles."

On Chinese social media platforms, many tourists shared their "coffee maps" and close-up shots of coffee creations during the May Day holiday.

Guiyang's coffee scene does not simply copy the models of other cities. Instead, it incorporates local ingredients such as cili, pungent litse, fish mint, and kiwi fruit to create distinctive drinks with a unique Guizhou flavor. At the same time, diverse business models such as "coffee + cat petting", "coffee + theater," and "coffee + market" have broken the single-format nature of traditional coffee shops.

Guiyang's coffee experience is not limited to the urban area. Coffee can also be enjoyed in mountain caves, by waterfalls, or on cliffs in the countryside. Inside a limestone cave in Xiuwen county, a cave coffee shop has been operating since August 2025 and has already received over 40,000 visits. While enjoying coffee, tourists can also try stand-up paddleboarding on an underground river inside the cave.

"The lighting inside the cave is very soft, and the overall atmosphere is quiet and relaxing," said Shen Fanlin, a tourist from Wuhan. "Deeper inside the coffee shop, there is a platform where you can see a waterfall and a stream. Just listening to the sound of water and looking at the cave walls, you feel very relaxed."