At a Glance (China Coffee Network): At 520 meters above sea level, a cup of coffee faces the Star City’s night lights Yunshang Coffee, atop Heimifeng, has become a viral check-in spot for its unique mountain-wild re…
At 520 meters above sea level, a cup of coffee faces the Star City’s night lights
Yunshang Coffee, atop Heimifeng, has become a viral check-in spot for its unique mountain-wild relaxation — a place to catch the breeze, watch the sunset and shoot atmospheric photos
Changsha Evening News all-media reporter Deng Yanhong
North of Changsha, the mountains of Heimifeng stretch on. Atop a peak hundreds of meters high, a plain open-air café hides among the wilds, its railing overlooking the cityscape. Since this summer, this niche spot named “Yunshang Coffee” (Cloud Coffee) has gone viral on short-video platforms thanks to its one-of-a-kind mountain-wild relaxation, becoming a new check-in destination for citizens and tourists to briefly escape the city bustle.
Recently, the reporter climbed Heimifeng to explore the earthly warmth and poetry of this mountaintop café.
A mountaintop trip that heals far-traveling visitors
To reach Yunshang Coffee on Heimifeng’s summit, visitors first complete a set of uphill procedures. They can buy tickets at the Leifeng Station visitor center at the foot of the mountain — 78 yuan per admission, which includes Heimifeng’s entrance ticket and a free drink, with plenty of choices: coffee lovers can pick Americano or coconut latte, while those who don’t drink coffee can choose hand-beaten lemon tea or canned tea — down-to-earth drinks that basically satisfy every palate.
After buying tickets, visitors can take a free shuttle bus up the mountain; buses depart roughly every 20 minutes. The mountain road twists and turns and is somewhat bumpy. As the vehicle climbs, the view is full of lush green forest. Along the way you see many hikers making their way to the summit step by step. After about 20 minutes’ drive, the view suddenly opens up, and Yunshang Coffee appears on the flat summit before your eyes.
This café has no fancy, delicate decor — it goes for a simple, free-spirited mountain-wild style. It’s bustling with people: some sit drinking coffee and chatting, others busy taking photos, the whole hilltop radiating a relaxed, cozy vibe.
“I’m traveling in Changsha. I saw this place on Douyin and thought it looked really interesting, so I came specially to check it out,” tourist Ms. Liu from Shenzhen told the reporter. Ms. Liu loves coffee and has been to many well-known cafés, but what truly moved her here was not the coffee’s taste, but the unique mountaintop setting.
The crisp mountain breeze, carrying the scent of grass and trees, blew past as Ms. Liu sat on the summit, a fragrant cup of coffee in hand, the Changsha cityscape right before her eyes. The fatigue of the journey dissolved in that moment, and she fully relaxed. “The scenery here is so beautiful — just taking in this view makes the trip worthwhile!”
In the eyes of Ding Keting, a café employee, the best views are on clear days. “When the weather is good, the visibility is excellent — Yuelu Mountain, Orange Isle and the Changsha IFS (International Finance Center) landmarks are all clearly visible.” Ding Keting, 17, is a student at Wangcheng District Vocational School, recommended by the school for an internship here, mainly responsible for live-streaming and introducing viewers to Yunshang Coffee and the summit scenery.
Ding Keting told the reporter that Yunshang Coffee began trial operation in July this year and has been very popular since opening. Especially on weekends and during summer vacation, the summit is always packed with visitors, many of whom came after watching her live streams, drawn by the mountaintop views to check in.
A café that lets visitors slow down and stay
Zhu Xiaoyong, the creator of Yunshang Coffee, is a young entrepreneur who has rooted himself in Heimifeng for years. In 2017, driven by a passion for flying, he took one look at Heimifeng’s landscape potential. With support from Qiaoyi Town in Wangcheng District, he built a grass hut on a barren hill with 300,000 yuan in savings, step by step establishing a paragliding base. Today, this project that started from a grass hut has grown into an industry benchmark — receiving 23,000 visitors a year with annual revenue exceeding 20 million yuan.
But in long-term operation, Zhu gradually realized the bottleneck of a single business format. “Fly and leave, with nothing else to do” became a shortcoming that hurt the visitor experience and constrained the local tourism-consumption pull.
“Could we let visitors, after flying, have a place to sit down, drink something and enjoy the view?” Years ago, Zhu began exploring the extension of the business format, shifting from pure extreme sports to a new path of integrating agriculture, culture and tourism. It was this simple idea that led to the birth of Yunshang Coffee. It is not an isolated commercial project, but a supplement to the original format.
From then on, the visitor experience chain was lengthened: after completing a paragliding flight, visitors need not rush down the mountain, but can blow in the breeze and zone out on the 520-meter-high viewing platform, sip a drink under the mountain-wild canopy, wait for a sunset glow, or quietly watch the Star City’s lights come on one by one.
“Before opening the café, this was just a viral check-in spot where many people came only to watch sunrise and sunset,” Zhu told the reporter. He opened the café to give visitors a better place to rest. To polish the format quality, he once made a special trip to Anji, Zhejiang, to study and benchmark the operation model of viral waterfall cafés, and combined Heimifeng’s mountain-wild character to build a local-fit viral cultural-tourism format.
To suit the travel needs of different groups, the scenic area opened a free shuttle from the Leifeng Station at the foot to the summit. “Because we hope people of different ages and fitness levels can all easily reach this space,” Zhu explained. That is why here you see both young people who came specially to shoot the city skyline and families with elderly and children.
According to introductions, to continuously enrich the experience, Yunshang Coffee has added barbecue and other food items, and is planning camping grounds and live-music events.
When night falls, Changsha’s city lights spread out in the distance as a view; overhead the mountain breeze brushes gently and stars emerge; the warm drink at hand comforts. At this moment, the city’s bustle and the mountain’s healing are magically connected.
Recommended highlights
Yunshang Coffee: located at the 520-meter-altitude paragliding takeoff field on Heimifeng, with a mountain-view terrace, overlooking Changsha from the hill. It offers coffee, signature tea drinks and light meals — both a great rest spot before and after flying, and a viral check-in point for catching the breeze, watching sunsets and shooting atmospheric photos.
Practical check-in guide
Address: Heimifeng Qufeifei Paragliding Base
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday
Per-capita consumption: about 78 yuan
Travel tips: From downtown Changsha, about 40–60 minutes by car; navigate directly to “Heimifeng Qufeifei Paragliding Base,” and after arriving at the visitor center, transfer to the free shuttle bus to reach the café directly. The visitor center has free parking — convenient for travel.
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