Forest Cafe Hidden on Wuhan Mulan Mountain Draws Crowds With Crooked Wall and Tree Views

Brief (coffeeyo.com): On a weekend afternoon, traffic winding down the mountain road halfway up Wuhan’s Mulan Mountain was not heading to a scenic spot but to a tree-hidden cafe called “gugu Valley,” which since opening on August 7 has sold over a thousand 78-yuan “valley entry” vouchers online — a “micro-vacation” completed in a cup of coffee.

On a weekend afternoon, the traffic winding down the mountain road halfway up Mulan Mountain in Huangpi, Wuhan, was not heading to a scenic spot but to a cafe tucked among the trees. Since opening on August 7, this cafe called “gugu Valley” has sold more than a thousand 78-yuan “valley entry” vouchers online.

Zhang Huahua, a visitor from Xiaogan, wore a white dress and drove an hour and a half just to take photos and check in here. “You don’t even need to compose a shot here — just raise your phone and it’s a good picture,” she said.

A forest-style cafe halfway up the mountain

The Xiaogan visitor who drove an hour and a half in a white dress to check in had planned her photo spots with friends online the day before, and headed straight for the cafe’s big windows on arrival. “Look at this white dress — I matched it specially for photos. This forest is natural and fresh, and I really love it,” she said.

At another “crooked wall” in the shop, customer Wang Yanwo lay in a lazy sofa, looking through the gap between the wall and ceiling at the on-and-off rain outside. “I like quiet and nature. Lying here watching daylight filter down from above, I really feel like I’m resting in a forest,” she said.

The cafe's crooked wall and seating nook

In the outdoor woods, Chen Yong, who came from Hankou, was hunting insects with his child; the two played in the forest for half an hour and already found quite a few longhorn beetles. “He didn’t fuss at all today. Before, after two steps in a scenic spot he’d cry to go home; today he played and didn’t want to leave,” Chen Yong said.

Halfway up the mountain, clouds and mist gathered and scattered. Inside and outside the shop, guests with phones raised were everywhere, stopping in every corner to either take photos or rest.

Crooked wall, floor-to-ceiling windows, hand-written signage

The manager stripped away the city feel bit by bit. “The cafe’s ‘crooked wall’ was specially designed, with a narrow slit left at the top so that lying here guests can see the sky change and feel they are right in the mountain, under the trees,” said manager Lei Da.

The shop’s two floor-to-ceiling windows occupying an entire wall were also designed for a natural experience. The windows weren’t deliberately staged but simply opened toward the woods. Unshorn fir branches reach right up to the glass. “It feels like sitting in the forest, with AC blowing too,” Wang Yan said with a smile.

Floor-to-ceiling windows opening to the woods

The shop’s signs and the plaque at the door were all drawn by the manager’s team. “We didn’t make too many city-feeling things; we kept the natural flavor,” Lei Da said.

But this does not mean limiting the experience. Next to the cafe there is also an all-black house, where Lei Da wants to try art salons, brand-IP collaborations and the like.

The crooked wall was originally designed for a guesthouse

Changed to a cafe after an “accidental discovery.” In 2022, this old forest farm already intended to start renovation, led by Liu Boning and his team from the Yuehe Linquan series of brand guesthouses. At first they also considered building it into a guesthouse.

An afternoon at the “gugu Valley” cafe: four old friends sit and chat.

However, this small plot of about one mu could fit at most four or five rooms, and Mulan Mountain already had two guesthouses of the same brand. Building another guesthouse wouldn’t necessarily give a good experience.

What really changed the team’s mind was an “accidental” discovery at another of their projects, “Yuehe Linquan · No. 1 Courtyard.” The vanas cafe opened there originally to serve lodging guests, yet on weekends it could sell more than 200 cups a day just from passersby.

“More and more people come to Wuhan to play on weekends, or come to Huangpi for hiking trips or micro-vacations,” Liu Boning said. In the past a cultural-tourism project often talked about “how big” or “how many rooms”; now even a one-mu plot, just a place to drink coffee, can draw people to make a special trip.

So the nearly finished guesthouse plan was scrapped, the cafe opened, and the crooked wall was kept as a design highlight.

A “micro-vacation” completed in the time it takes to drink one cup of coffee — this shift is not unique in Wuhan. It is understood that similar spaces such as “Dukou Coffee” and “Shandaoli · SATORI” are also “breaking out” with their sense of design and rich experiences.

Source: China News Network Hubei.

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