Rise of the Coffee Bean

When it comes to the drink of choice in China, tea with its long and storied history is the first thing one thinks of. Most restaurants will provide tea free of charge for you to drink with your meal, whilst people across the country can be seen carrying flasks on their person to be drunk during the workday. Teahouses are also very common, and often a sit-down and a taster session are required before settling on a leaf that you are happy with. Other than this though, teahouses do not really function as a place to spend an afternoon nor a place to have a chat with a friend. Like in many other countries, cafés very much fill this hole. The consumption of coffee in China has grown year on year which has had a knock-on effect on not only the choice of coffee available at supermarkets, but also the proliferation of cafés – both big-name corporations as well as independently run coffeehouses.

Similar to pretty much everywhere else in the world, Starbucks can now be found all over the country while Costa is also making some pretty big inroads, as well as other brands like Caffe bene and Lavazza. When I picture a Costa outlet in the UK I generally picture drab cafés on train platforms however what is common in China amongst all these chains is that they are quite upmarket. Unfortunately this is matched by the price, and what you will often find is that even when taking the currency into account, coffee at Costa and Starbucks is more expensive in China than it is in the UK or US. Presumably this is how they keep out the riff-raff though I pretty much consider myself amongst their number and wish the price wasn’t quite so prohibitive.

Apart from the bigger outlets, smaller independently-run cafés are also very common. These tend to be grouped in certain areas, frequently near universities. Unlike the more homogenous main brands (decorated in their pastel shades and replete with a pretentious jazz soundtrack) these smaller cafés are generally decorated by the owner and the décor reflects their individual taste and style. People generally like to be more artistic in their design and often there are some really interesting places to go. On the downside the coffee often doesn’t work out much cheaper than the chain stores, which I can only assume is a result of a country-wide conspiracy amongst coffee purveyors to drive up prices (as opposed to say – high import prices). As somewhat of a philistine when it comes to the fine art of coffee brewing and consumption (I usually drink granulated coffee at home) I am not really in a position to comment on the quality, however it seems pretty much fine to me.

As a final point, when the weather is disgustingly hot in the summer they do provide a much-needed haven of air-conditioning. As a final final point, public toilets in China are notoriously bad so if you are out and about and feel the call of nature do yourself a favour and find a Starbucks – bliss.

 

 

Mixing it with the locals

Much the same as anywhere, when you live in the same area for a little while you tend to get to know the cashiers/staff etc. who work at your local shops and restaurants. Whilst at home you may exchange small talk, if you can’t speak Chinese this goes out of the window a little bit when you come out here. Nevertheless you find that quite soon everyone near where you live knows you and you end up being familiar with quite a few people (typically not by name but more by descriptive epithets like ‘corner shop guy’ ‘fried rice woman’ or ‘security guard man’). As a helpful offshoot this does typically lead to better service, particularly if you tend to buy the same things from a given vendor. For example there is one person that I buy breakfast from regularly, always buying the local re gan mian noodles. Before I even enter the shop the woman has started making them. Of course this does mean that if I ever decide to order something else she just assumes I misspoke and makes re gan mian anyway. Along with this woman, one of my other favourite people near me is ‘fried dumpling lady’ who is always really friendly. Last year I was talking to her about my plans to go home for Christmas and in the same conversation mentioned that I liked the home-made pickle they put on the fried rice. No sooner had I mentioned that, than she promised to make me a big batch (for free) which I could take home to the UK for all my family to try. True to her word she did actually make a big bowl for me and I did end up bringing it back to England – it went down a storm.

Another of my favourite people is ‘water vendor woman’ who has a stand near the entrance to the Metro. I buy bottles of water from her daily on my way to work and she is without doubt one of the smiliest people I have ever met. I mentioned to her once that I had done some teaching which absolutely made her day, she thought it was such a great thing that she tried to give me the water for free that day. She is also convinced that I only drink one brand of water and even when her husband is working there she always reminds him which brand to give me (in truth it’s the only brand that I know the Chinese name which is why I asked for it..). Most apartment complexes will have security guards at the main entrance, most of which I recognise by now. With most of them I am very much on smiling and nodding terms with, but my favourite is definitely the guy who booms out a big ‘Hello!’ whenever I go past, accompanied by a massive grin. Another person I come across pretty often is ‘grizzled street cleaner man’ who speaks the thickest most unintelligible dialect which I have great trouble understanding. This does not mean we are not fast friends though and I’m always keen for a random conversation in the street with him. Definitely my favourite thing that he did whilst we were speaking was casually throwing his empty cigarette packet onto the floor after he’d smoked the last one – despite the fact that he was standing there with a broom and bag and that it was his job to pick up such litter.

Talk to anyone who lives here and they will have the same kind of daily interactions. One of the great things about spending time here is getting to know all sorts of people, even if the actual conversation you have with them may be limited. It is these interactions that really make you feel at home and very much part of a community.