Foreign traders decode Guiyang's 'coffee code': a city that grows no beans still holds every flavour

On September 26, the 2026 Guiyang Coffee Expo came to a close. The exhibition brought together numerous coffee brands from several Chinese cities as well as Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Uganda and other countries and regions, and the vast majority of out-of-town exhibitors were visiting Guiyang for the first time. Many visitors shared the same question: Guizhou does not grow coffee beans at scale, so why have cafés sprung up all over Guiyang, which has grown into a coffee city of considerable influence in southwest China? At the exhibition site, our reporter held in-depth conversations with overseas traders and Yunnan coffee practitioners to uncover the city’s coffee code.

Expo booths

Martin, from Uganda, has long run coffee shops in Beijing, and this was his first time exhibiting in Guiyang. Amid the bustle at his booth, he shared his first impressions with our reporter.

The Uganda coffee booth

“I had heard before that Guiyang’s coffee market is very active, and having come here in person, my impression is even better than I expected,” Martin said. “This city is full of energy; walk down any street and you can find a café. Guiyang residents are willing to actively try coffees of different flavours from around the world. That enthusiasm for coffee is truly rare.”

Ugandan beans

An owner who has worked in Yunnan’s coffee industry for many years offered his own view: “Many people hold a fixed assumption that a great coffee city must produce coffee beans locally. But whether a city’s coffee culture can flourish has never been determined by origin — what matters is the consumption atmosphere and the city’s inclusiveness.” He explained further that Guiyang people love coffee and readily embrace flavours from around the world, and that this open, inclusive urban temperament is the best soil for coffee culture to grow in.

During interviews at the exhibition, our reporter found that Guiyang’s local coffee enthusiasts also have distinctly different taste preferences. A Yunnan barista explained that local enthusiasts in Guiyang mostly prefer full-bodied coffee with bitterness, while consumers in Yunnan favour light-roasted beans to preserve as much of the bean’s natural fruit acidity and original flavour as possible. Differences in regional dietary habits have created two very different coffee aesthetics.

Coffee brands from many places are willing to travel to Guiyang to exhibit precisely because they see this vigorous consumer vitality. Lao iced coffee, Vietnamese drip coffee and Singaporean specialty pour-over coffee gathered under one roof, with coffee flavours from different regions colliding on the same stage. Out-of-town exhibitors told our reporter that they had initially worried about limited acceptance in the southwest market, but after several days of the exhibition, Guiyang visitors’ willingness to taste and to talk left them pleasantly surprised.

A Guangdong coffee brand

From independent cafés growing across the city’s streets and alleys to the successful staging of a large-scale coffee expo, Guiyang has relied on strong consumer momentum to step outside the fixed framework that “only bean-producing regions can develop a coffee industry.”

Behind a cup of coffee lies a city’s open and inclusive character. It does not produce coffee beans, yet it gathers coffee flavours from around the world; it has no local industrial foundation, yet it has cultivated a rich coffee lifestyle culture. With its vigorous consumer enthusiasm, Guiyang has built a platform for coffee cultural exchange, bringing coffee practitioners from far and wide together here and weaving coffee’s everyday warmth into the city’s daily life.

Tianyan News reporter Gao Xin

Editor Wang Xiaoting

Second review Yang Tao

Final review Min Jie

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