Brief (coffeeyo.com): About 30 metres past the viewing platform at Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village, a sign for the “Xunmei Boardwalk” leads visitors uphill to an unlikely stop: a four-storey “coffee + art” space where almost every window frames a view of the village. Since the boardwalk opened, revenue is up 40 per cent year on year — and the new format is creating local jobs as well as photo opportunities.
Walk about 30 metres on from the viewing platform at Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village in Leishan County and a sign reading “Xunmei Boardwalk” (In Search of Beauty) steers visitors away from the lookout and into the hills. Follow it uphill and a four-storey building halfway up the mountain has become, since the boardwalk opened, an unexpected stop on many people’s trip.
On September 12, a reporter stepped into this “coffee + art” space called the Cunshang Shufang Art Museum, and the first thing that stands out is the photo spots scattered through the shop. Yan Cheng, one of the people running it, says the whole place has 20 “check-in spots” — almost every window and every corner frames a view of Xijiang.
The first floor is an open lounge and photo area, the second an art gallery plus hands-on zone, and the third and fourth indoor relaxation areas. Indoor and outdoor space together comes to about 1,500 square metres, so guests need not finish their coffee and leave; they can wander up floor by floor, looking as they go.
“Every area gives you a different line of sight over Xijiang,” says Yan Cheng.
The shop officially opened last May and has built itself around “coffee + art”. For visitors it is not just somewhere to drink coffee; it is more like a new kind of place where you can pause and slow down. Some come up for a coffee and take photos while they are at it; some view the art exhibition and then head upstairs for the scenery; others were only passing through and end up staying half a day.
Mr Qu, a travel blogger who spent two days in Xijiang, approves of the photo spots. “You don’t have to squeeze in with crowds; you can shoot in peace, then have a coffee and look out over the Miao village — it feels wonderful,” he says. To his mind, spaces like this shift visitors from “rushing between sights” to “actually enjoying the view”.
The change has been even clearer since the newly built Xunmei Boardwalk opened. Yan Cheng has felt it directly: this year, with the boardwalk open, the shop’s revenue is up 40 per cent on last year.
The numbers tell the same story: over the past year the shop has taken around 1.3 million yuan. For a space built on a hillside and centred on coffee and art, this is not simply “selling coffee” — it reflects how a new format changes the length of time people stay and the ways they spend.
The new format brings more than a treat for tourists: it also lets local people work close to home, in jobs that are not so relentless.
Lei Yuxiao, who graduated from university this year, is one of the staff. “I can make coffee myself — on busy days a few hundred cups; when it’s quiet I just pick up a book and enjoy a moment of calm.”
More interesting still, the café keeps two staff photographers on hand, there specifically to take pictures for visitors. For many, that hits the “check-in” need exactly: no hunting for the right angle, no worrying about a bad shot — coffee, scenery and photos all done in one stop.
This year, Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village has been building on its local strengths to keep broadening its tourism offering. The Xunmei Boardwalk, a newly created flagship cultural-tourism project, is an immersive strolling corridor that brings together nature viewing, cultural experience, leisure tea and coffee, and interactive photo stops. Where the boardwalk is open and expansive, the Tanmi Ancient Trail leads visitors deep into the everyday life of the village, into the real rhythms of local people, and into places such as the Xijiang Bookshop and the home of the Guzangtou (the Miao ritual head), where one can touch the Miao people’s thousand-year history of migration and their Guzang ritual culture.
One route runs high and open, the other deep and sheltered; together the two lines give visitors more ways to explore.
Reporter: Jiang Hongqi, Tianyan News
Editor: Li Li
Second review: Yu Guangyan
Final review: An Tong
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