Fotoyard Café

An excited friend called to say he had just walked out of a seriously cool café right off Nanshan Road and that we had to get down there and spread the word. A seriously cool café? Most places we get to view have massively overpriced coffee made in some weird looking chemistry set and served in ridiculously tiny and expensive bone china sets ‘from Derby, England.’ Not this place. Fotoyard has been put together by a group of well-traveled photographers, and they have drawn ideas from all over China and abroad. The room is well-lit with a 20 metre south-facing glass wall looking onto the Qian Wang Ci Temple. Small tables with a choice of chairs or sofas allow you to sit with your wireless laptop and do a little surfing or slouch and slurp over real Illy coffee. The same group of owners also set up a small primary school in the Zhongdian Town in NW Yunnan. During the many trips there, they picked up rugs and cushions that now pad the floor of a raised platform in a kind of Thai fashion to create a supremely lazy place to relax and chat. Coffee, beer and fruit juices are on the menu. Should you want a bite to eat, there are pizzas cooked in a traditional brick oven and a little pasta too. Of course the place is not called Fotoyard for nothing. There are two photo exhibitions a month from China’s non-mainstream photographers. Be prepared to buy. All in all, this place holds lots of promise for good coffee in the day, a few beers at night. Placed in the middle of Nanshan Road, getting there cannot be easier. View Larger Map