Action plan

At the end of last month, the Shanghai authorities announced a 50-point action plan to fully assist enterprises to recover from the challenges posed by COVID-19 in recent months.

According to the plan, businesses in the catering, retail, tourism, civil aviation and transportation sectors, and small-, medium- and micro-sized enterprises, are entitled to postpone paying social insurance premiums and housing provident fund contributions to the end of this year, as well as benefiting from other exemptions and reductions in taxes and fees.

Xu said: "A cup of coffee involves a lot of people, from farmers in producing regions, to processing workers, transportation operators, equipment manufacturers, and baristas in cafes. I hope everyone can survive."

After working for a coffee company for several years, He, from Yeast, resigned and opened her own cafe in Shanghai in 2020.

Before she settled on Yanqing Road, the native of Lanzhou, Gansu province, considered several other cities as options for the business. "I finally chose Shanghai because I like the city, its pace of life and coffee culture," she said.

"Coffee here is not just a drink, it's a way of life."

Numerous cafes dot the cityscape in Shanghai, especially in busy areas, including Huaihai Road and Xujiahui. Nanjing Road West boasts 57 cafes serving coffee, the highest density of such businesses in the city, while on Ruijin Second Road in Huangpu district, there is a boutique coffee cafe every 20 meters.

According to the Shanghai Coffee Consumption Index, there are far more cafes in the city than in New York and Tokyo. Covering an area of nearly 6,300 square kilometers, Shanghai boasts an average of 1.26 coffee shops per sq km.

The city not only attracts traditional coffee giants, such as Starbucks and Costa, but is also home to many new coffee chain brands, including Luckin and Manner. Blue Bottle Coffee, known as "the Apple of the coffee world", recently chose Shanghai as the location for its first shop on the Chinese mainland.

Niche outlets such as Yeast are also developing their business in the city.

Comparing Yeast to a bridge that connects strangers, He also likened the business to a "tribe", where people with common hobbies and similar ideas get together to have fun and share their life stories.

"For example, the tent and sleeping bags I used to live in the shop were provided by one of my regular customers who loves camping," she said. "We plan to go on a camping trip after the city fully recovers from the epidemic."

She added that she chose the shop's location because she wanted coffee to be part of life for local residents.

"For example, white-collar workers buy takeout coffee on their way to the office every morning, while neighbors chat with each other here after work," she said.

"Yeast is a basic element that adds to the enjoyment of food, so I believe that coffee will do the same for our lives," she added.