Coffee shops perk up sleepy rural places

Scenery and streams

The Waterfall under the Clouds coffee shop in Dali village, Shanchuan township, was built near a series of waterfalls in the mountains. From the cafe to the related camping area, it looks more like a leisure resort from the outside than Dark Blue X does.

Thousands of photos and travel notes posted on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), a lifestyle-focused social media platform, show visitors taking off their shoes, sitting in the local stream, stepping on stones and enjoying coffee.

In December, Lin Feng, an experienced tourism entrepreneur, settled on the waterfall landscape in Dali and began constructing the cafe and camping area in cooperation with the village collective.

When something brings in obvious benefits and a promising future, the villagers naturally support it. After opening in June, the cafe had earned a profit of more than 500,000 yuan by September.

According to Ying Zhongdong, secretary of the Party branch in Dali, with several projects implemented under the "Two investments and three returns" model, the village collective is expected to earn an additional 1 million yuan this year.

"The income will be widely used in the development of the village infrastructure, such as cleaning up and beautifying the roads, street lighting, garbage sorting and construction of cultural and leisure facilities, including libraries and art galleries," Ying said, adding that the villagers' living standards have improved dramatically since the projects started. "Young people can succeed in their endeavors now. The development in Anji county is getting better, and to some extent that's because the villagers are willing to accept new ideas and try new things."

As the residents are almost strangers to new ideas, it makes sense to support young people who are not only more innovative but also better at optimizing new media platforms to improve operating efficiency, he added.

Xu, a mother of two from Hangzhou who heard about Dali through travel guides posted on Xiaohongshu, said: "The lush mountains, lucid water, and bright colors here (in Dali village) are all inviting, which makes it more comfortable than being in the city. You can access nature, breathing as you wish where the sky is the ceiling."

Buried gold cannot shine, so to gain greater exposure for the Waterfall under the Clouds, the entrepreneurial team cooperated with Xiaohongshu to create an internet-famous cafe image in ways that applied the secondary marketing strategy to its online publicity, luring people who would not usually consume such products.

"Setting this place up as an internet-famous cafe to tick off is more in line with the consumption habits of modern young people. If it is positioned simply as a tourist attraction, young people may not be interested," said Lin to explain his business strategy.

According to him, his creative team plans to further develop the business format on the edge of the cafe, to build it into a multifunctional area, and to improve the development of the "Cafe+" business model.

"We plan to develop adventure and resort businesses on the mountaintop, such as rock climbing and camping in ways that utilize the natural resources to the fullest," Lin said.

Luo Jiayuan contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at yandongjie@chinadaily.com.cn