Stodgy Xinhua Goes Upscale at Trendy New Bookstore Cafe

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Xinhua Bookstores used to be quite a ubiquitous sight in Beijing, and if you’ve been here long enough, like I have, you may have your own fond memories of them. Though they certainly did not quite pander to the English-only reader’s needs, I remember making sense of my first proper pages of not-from-a-textbook Chinese at a Xinhua Bookstore. And you’ll have to admit that the way they just let you sit there for hours paging through books without ever buying anything was quite cool.

Adapt or perish

Alas, nothing gold can stay and Xinhua Bookstores are no exception. In our era of e-books, e-commerce and screens galore, many of these stores have closed their doors or otherwise become small stationery shops with, at best, a limited selection of books. 

Oh, but then there’s also Qieman Café over at 117 Dongsi Beidajie. Xinhua actually opened this trendy café with a suggestive name – 且慢 qiěmàn is Chinese for “wait a moment” or “not so fast” – a little over a year ago. It’s located on the west side of the strip of shops, restaurants and eateries that connects Beixinqiao and Zhangzizhong Lu. 

The sleek and usually crowded interior

Sure, dear reader, I’m not bringing you the latest opening this time. Honestly, though, you may very well have missed out on this one until now. At least for me, Dongsi Beidajie used to be a street that I rushed along on my way to someplace else. Heck, I was directed to Qieman by friends of mine who live around there and told me about this “new” café that was “quite good for work.” Better now than never, don’t you think? And I did find some offerings worth your attention in this here post… 

Still some books at a reach

First things first, I ordered myself a mulled wine, because it’s always mulled wine o’clock, and since they still had their Christmas tree up it felt particularly appropriate. I find that mulled wine is becoming a much more frequent café item in Beijing than it used to be. This is great news but it also means that you need to sift through a fair few that might not be up to standard. Sadly, I can’t say the one at Qieman would make it into my top three. They keep the pot outdoors and serve the wine in a pretty, tall glass, probably so that the usual trimmings stand out, but I’d much rather it was served in a sturdier cup, with a little more punch and a lot more steam. At RMB 45 per glass, I could get a few servings of the same potion at the parlor next to Nanjie Bar in Sanlitun’s Courtyard No. 4 and keep the enamel cup it comes in. 

Cute glass, but I will keep searching for better mulled win

Next time I’m getting myself the Donut Latte (甜甜圈拿铁, tiántiánquān nátiě, RMB 46), apparently one of their newest additions to the menu and aptly named due to the shape of its foamy top. It looked good and, frankly, intriguing – was that indeed just foam? Was that an actual donut? I almost broke social distancing etiquette to find out from another customer’s order, and I’m certainly willing to go back and check it out myself. 

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But I’m saving the second and most exciting part of my first order at Qieman for the last part of this blog post. Ah, I squealed at this. 

Language nerds, rejoice!

Won’t you look at that miniature Xinhua Dictionary? Now that’s cute and nerdy. Have you heard that theory that if you play a podcast at bedtime you may actually learn whatever was playing while you snore away? Well, my theory is that this Xinhua Dictionary Mille-Feuille Cheesecake (新华字典芝士千层, Xīnhuá zìdiǎn zhīshì qiān céng, RMB 52) will magically help you digest your hanzi and reach HSK royalty status. What kind of scientific research is backing this theory, you ask? Why, my guts and gluttony. 

A convincing bite

With confectionery, usually the cuter it looks, the crappier it’ll taste, at least in my experience. But this cake was honestly okay. The mille-feuille could have been more delicate, maybe, but it wasn’t sickly sweet and the top dictionary layer thing didn’t ruin the thing with artificial flavors as tends to be the case with this kind of whimsical cake.

A nice afternoon stop

All in all, Qieman makes for a cute café with plenty of novelty items and drinks on a regular basis, judging from their Dianping reviews. It has a nice atmosphere, though more often than not you’ll find it crowded so it's maybe not completely reliable for digital nomads. It's also a little on the expensive side, I’d say. However, it made for a good first café-hopping adventure of 2023, in a year already filled with solid hopes for true normalcy. May we get our fill of good cuppas. 

Qieman Café 且慢CAFE

117 Dongsi Beiajie, Dongcheng District
东城区东四北大街117号

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Images: Ana Padilla Fornieles

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