Gentle Spring Breeze Magazine Library and Café in Qianmen Looks Great But Comes at a Price

Andy Penafuerte | Mar 28, 2018 1:00 pm | Add a comment | 2572 reads

Cafés are effectively an extension of my office workspace and it may sound untenable to some, but the sound of coffee grinding, jazzy background music, and indistinct chatter stimulate my creativity and galvanize my writing and efficiency. As I've become accustomed to in the numerous coffee houses in business districts or tourist areas of Beijing, they're usually filled with people but not always necessarily individuals who are looking to chip away at work. In fact, many stick around purely for the free Wi-Fi or just to charge their smartphones.

On the hunt for something a little more work-oriented, I headed to Gentle Spring Breeze Magazine Library, tucked away in the bustling streets of Qianmen. The building itself is beautifully designed, its exterior mirroring that of a quaint and modernized hutong and comes complete with floor to ceiling windows, perfect for gazing out and collecting your thoughts.

However, once inside, hutong veterans may find the magazine café to be rather artificial in its rejuvenation even if its workshop and reading areas do retain an “old” feel. We would also argue that even though they have a better collection of magazines than you'd usually find in a central Beijing café, one to two hundred titles on topics such as music, fashion, design, and the arts might be a stretch to call it "magazine library."

Then, there's the RMB 75 “all-day experience” fee given that the library is a “members-only” area (at least this includes a drink of your choice – a sub-par coffee in our case). If you're truly considering to use this as your work hub then you can also opt for a RMB 399 annual fee, which includes reservation of your preferred seat and 10 percent discount for selected drinks and items. Although staff explained that the fee is implemented to limit the number of people using the library, we wouldn't rush back to pay it again.

You can also expect that a portion of the clientele, especially groups of tourists, will make the most of the fee namely by using the magazines as a prop for selfies and little else.

All in all, ignoring the giggling tourists, Gentle Spring Breeze could make for a fine replacement of a dull office setting as well as something a little different after a stroll through the touristy center of Beijing. However, a limited magazine collection and drinks menu, the RMB 75 fee, plus a 200m walk to the nearest public toilet mean that you may not want to ditch your favorite daytime haunt just yet.