(Yicai Global) Aug. 23 -- Shanghai, the city with the biggest number of cafes in China, has become a destination for coffee enthusiasts with the picturesque Xuhui district as its center.

The Hengshan Road-Fuxing Road Historic and Cultural Area in Xuhui has the highest concentration of boutique cafes in the eastern city, according to statistics compiled by Yicai's Research Institute for Emerging First-Tier Cities.

The cultural area has 215 coffee shops, more than half of which are not part of bigger chains, and the sum makes up almost one-fourth of the total in Xuhui. In fact, the most popular type of business in the area famous for its buildings built as early as the 1920s is operating a cafe.

Opened in 2012, Cafe del Volcan was the first boutique cafe on Yongkang Road, located in the cultural zone. The coffee house with simple decor has two neighbors, Griffin Coffee and Beautiful Concept. Customers call the three businesses "three coffee giants on a footpath."

After Yongkang Road was upgraded commercially in 2016, the historical street welcomed several cafes that became famous online. Evidently, in late 2020, Hinichijou picked the street as the location for its first store in Shanghai. The cafe, which hires disabled baristas, became quickly viral as customers were taking pictures of cups of coffee offered by the staff who wear bear paw costumes through a hole in a wall.

Another emerging coffee hotspot is the 8.4-kilometer-long Xuhui Riverside. At present, about 30 cafes have set up shop since Starbucks, Manner Coffee and other coffee chains began to enter the commercial area along the Huangpu River in 2020, turning the urban green area even more pleasant.

Shanghai is a hub of international coffee brands as several of them have located their regional headquarters in the economic powerhouse.

Starbucks set up an office in the Caohejing Development Zone Park in 2011, and later upgraded it to its Chinese headquarters. Yum China Holdings, the operator of coffee chain Lavazza in China, established its coordinated development headquarters in the Xujiahui Business Circle in 2017. Moreover, McDonalds, the parent of McCafe, inaugurated its new China head office in Shanghai's West Bund in November.

Shanghai had more than 8,600 cafes as of this month, up nearly 1,630 units from a year ago, per the Yicai institute. Almost 970 of the total are Starbucks outlets, nearly 580 of them are Luckin Coffee stores, almost 330 of them sell Manner coffee, and 319 are McCafes.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine