At a Glance (China Coffee Network): Xiamen’s Jimei Coffee Season is here: a multi-track experience of market fairs, citywide check-ins, and brewing championships turns coffee from a single beverage into a strollable, playable, and participatable urban scene, driving business-district consumption and young-footfall.
I. Overall Highlights of the Event
(1) Scale and Richness of the Experience
As a representative urban coffee-culture event in Xiamen, the Jimei Coffee Season is a signature cultural-tourism experience that many visitors to the city follow closely. The event adopts a dual-mode layout of “centralized main-venue presentation plus citywide store participation,” covering diverse scenarios such as seaside leisure, professional competitions, hands-on interaction, and urban check-ins, satisfying the needs of different visitor groups. From October 30 to November 2, the Shili Changdi Embankment hosts the Jimei Coffee Season, with the core program landing at the main venue and a citywide check-in campaign running through mid-November, letting visitors arrange their participation flexibly according to their schedules.
A trip to Xiamen is incomplete without checking in at Jimei’s Shili Changdi Embankment. The Shili Changdi coffee market brings together 130+ coffee brands from across China and abroad, many making their first appearance at the Jimei Coffee Season. Among them are overseas brands such as Homebody Union from Melbourne, Australia, and Emberwood Coffee Roasters from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; brands from Taiwan, China, such as Mingjian Coffee and Cuiqu Coffee; and distinctive brands from many parts of the mainland, including Beijing’s Beiping Bingjiang, Shanghai’s Montagio (Shan Shang You Dou), and Wuxi, Jiangsu’s SideCoffee. Coffee styles and creative ideas from different regions converge here, offering participants a rich tasting experience.
(2) Target Audiences and Participation Value
The event covers leisure tourists, coffee enthusiasts, industry professionals, and many other groups, each able to find a suitable way to take part. For tourists visiting Xiamen, this event—blending seaside scenery with coffee culture—is a distinctive way to feel the city’s atmosphere; for local residents, it is also a quality choice for weekend leisure and urban strolls. Reachable directly by metro and free to enter, the market has a friendly participation threshold, requiring no complicated booking, fitting both spontaneous outings and planned check-in itineraries.
II. Highlights at the Shili Changdi Main Venue
(1) Seaside Market Experience
Stroll Shili Changdi, see the Eye of Jimei, and savor aromatic coffee. Also known as the “Eye of Jimei,” Shili Changdi is a seaside viral landmark in Xiamen, with a waterfront promenade and large grassy viewing areas overlooking the Xinglin Bridge and Jimei Bridge and the sea-crossing Line 1 metro. It combines the historical and cultural heritage of the seawall with natural coastal scenery. Leveraging the embankment’s seaside setting, this Coffee Season has created a “coastal coffee living room,” placing the coffee market within the waterfront venue so visitors can browse the fair and taste specialty coffees from around the country while enjoying the sea breeze, immersing themselves in the coastal coffee-culture atmosphere. At Xiamen Jimei Youth City, live your best life through specialty coffee.
Brands at the market are stylistically diverse—from professional roasters focused on pour-over to specialty stores featuring creative signatures—and also cover peripheral categories such as green and roasted beans, coffee equipment, and coffee merchandise. Beyond coffee, the market also features craft cocktails, desserts and snacks, creative light meals, and handicraft making, covering the full eat-drink-stroll scene so visitors can complete leisure, dining, and check-ins in one place without moving between venues.
(2) Hands-on Workshop Interaction
Come to Shili Changdi to see the sea and try sea-glass, flour-bag crafting, coffee-grounds DIY, and other workshop interactions. The main venue sets up a workshop interaction zone with various hands-on experiences and themed sharing sessions, with daily content adjusted dynamically. After browsing the coffee market, visitors can join craft projects here, enjoying the seaside view while experiencing the joy of handmade creation, enriching the layered experience of a seaside outing.
The workshop projects suit participants of different ages—families can create together, and young visitors can make their own keepsakes. Multiple themed sharing sessions on coffee culture and lifestyle aesthetics extend the event’s cultural dimension beyond mere check-in and tasting.
(3) Nighttime Music Atmosphere
Free live music performances. During the event, Shili Changdi also hosts Coffee Music Nights, held daily from 18:00 to 21:00 (subject to dynamic adjustment based on competition progress). In the evening, after watching the seaside sunset, visitors can pause to enjoy live music; sea breeze, waves, and melodies intertwine for a relaxed, comfortable vibe—an ideal close to a market visit.
At night, the seaside venue with soft lighting and live music is perfect for chatting with friends and unwinding. The market’s food-and-beverage offerings also serve into the night, letting visitors pair drinks and snacks and enjoy coastal nighttime leisure, extending the experience from afternoon into evening for a complete leisure route.
III. Professional Competition Viewing
(1) Full-Event Viewing Access
Free viewing of three major competitions—cupping, brewing, and latte art. At the main venue, three professional coffee competitions take turns, covering technical dimensions such as flavor identification, manual brewing, and latte-art creation, combining professional competition with mass appeal. The FJCC Cupping Competition and the inaugural Jimei Cup Latte Art Competition land at the Shili Changdi main venue, while the China Coffee Brewing Championship · Xiamen Station is held at the Red Dot Design Museum in Jimei District. Ordinary visitors need no ticket to watch coffee professionals and enthusiasts compete side by side and feel the craft’s professional charm. The three competitions run across different time slots from October 30 to November 2, so visitors can choose sessions by schedule and interest. Even without professional knowledge, on-site viewing reveals the technical dimensions of the coffee industry and deepens the experience.
(2) Key Competitions to Watch
The inaugural Jimei Cup Latte Art Competition is highly visually appealing. Held at Shili Changdi from 14:00 to 18:00 daily on November 1–2, contestants use espresso as a canvas to compete on the liveliness and beauty of latte-art patterns; the process flows smoothly and the finished patterns are creatively varied—a very spectator-friendly event. Open to coffee professionals and latte-art enthusiasts aged 16 and above, contestants’ styles differ, letting viewers feel diverse creative expression. World champions attend and SCA judges preside. The China Coffee Brewing Championship · Xiamen Station is presided over by SCA-certified judges, with standards and procedures following professional industry norms to ensure fairness. World coffee champions appear on site (at the Red Dot Design Museum in Jimei District) and interact face-to-face with participants, sharing professional experience and industry insights—a valuable experience for coffee lovers.
IV. Citywide Coffee Roaming
(1) Participation Entry and Coverage
Buy a tasting pass and start your Xiamen coffee roam. Beyond the concentrated experience at the Shili Changdi main venue, the Jimei Coffee Season also launches a Xiamen coffee-tasting program running September 15 to November 14, linking partner coffee stores across six districts of Xiamen. After buying a coffee-tasting pass, visitors can redeem corresponding coffee with coupons at partner stores, combining store check-ins with urban strolls to feel the city’s character and coffee vibe across districts while exploring shops.
Partner stores span Jimei, Siming, Huli, Tong’an, Xiang’an, and Haicang—both hidden neighborhood gems and popular mall brands. Tourists can weave store check-ins into their itinerary between attractions and use coffee to set the rhythm of their city roam; locals can use leisure time to gradually explore nearby stores.
(2) Benefits and Rewards
The tasting pass offers different cup tiers to choose freely; the 10-cup tier is priced at RMB 159, with 20-cup and 30-cup tiers also available—the more cups, the lower the per-cup cost. With 50+ coffee stores and 10 cups for RMB 159, broad coverage and friendly pricing lower the barrier to coffee roaming and make repeat check-ins more cost-effective. Check in at stores to win limited merchandise and a grand prize. The tasting program has a three-tier check-in upgrade: completing the corresponding number of store check-ins unlocks rewards—10 stores unlocks coffee merchandise and a draw for Jimei Coffee Season limited merchandise; 20 stores unlocks a second gift and a higher-tier draw; 30 stores unlocks the grand prize and a chance at a higher-value gift pack. Additionally, posting check-in content to Xiaohongshu with the designated hashtag and uploading different stores’ content unlocks extra rewards, adding motivation and fun.
V. IP Merchandise and Practical Tips
(1) Official IP Derivatives
The “A-Ji and Xiao-Mei” limited figurines can be purchased via the official WeChat account “Jimei Coffee Season.” “A-Ji” and “Xiao-Mei” are the event’s exclusive cartoon IPs, applied to offline check-ins, promotional materials, and derivative products. Beyond the limited figurines, IP derivative content includes Coffee Season-themed merchandise, the “Xiamen Coffee Tasting Guide,” flour-bag crafting materials, and more; related information and access are available through the official WeChat account. For visitors who collect event merchandise, the limited IP figurine is a memorable souvenir.
(2) Visiting Notes
· The Shili Changdi main venue and the Red Dot Design Museum are two different venues; the brewing championship and world-champion exchange activities are at the Red Dot Design Museum. Visitors planning to watch or join should plan routes and transport in advance.
· Workshop hands-on content adjusts daily; specific projects are subject to on-site arrangement at Shili Changdi. Coffee Music Night times may shift with competition progress; check on-site notices upon arrival.
· Some competitions have limited slots and close once full; those interested in competing can check the latest registration via official channels.
· The WeChat account “Jimei Coffee Season” is the official release channel; market updates, competition notices, and event adjustments are all based on it. Check the account before traveling for the latest information to ensure a good experience.
VI. Conclusion
As a Xiamen event blending cultural-tourism attributes with a cultural atmosphere, the Jimei Coffee Season offers visiting tourists a distinctive experience combining seaside leisure with coffee culture, and gives locals a citywide coffee-roaming playbook. Whether heading to Shili Changdi for a one-stop taste of market, competitions, music, and seaside scenery, or joining the tasting program to check in at stores across the city, visitors can enjoy a rich yet relaxed experience. Event information is subject to the latest official announcements; plan your participation by schedule and preference, and feel the coffee culture and coastal charm of the city of Xiamen.
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- This article is compiled and edited by China Coffee Network (coffeeyo.com) and reprinted from Tencent News: 《集美咖啡季核心玩法盘点：市集观赛与全城打卡全体验》. The copyright of the original article belongs to Tencent News and the original author. This site reprints it solely for the sharing of coffee-industry information and does not represent our position; all data and views are subject to the original. We thank the original author for their creation and sharing.
- Original article: Tencent News: 《集美咖啡季核心玩法盘点：市集观赛与全城打卡全体验》
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