Famous and Characteristic Coffee Shops Near Sichuan: The Best Environment and Most Solitary Cafes Worth Visiting

When you think of loneliness, does this image come to mind: the sun setting, the moon slowly rising, sunset clouds reddening the sky, the lights going out floor by floor in the city's towers, street lamps flickering, and you, headphones on and eyes empty, weaving through dense crowds of people.

This is what most single working people experience every day after work — loneliness in the crowd. But have you ever considered loneliness away from people?

According to Fuzhou News Network, a café perched on the Dagu Glacier in Heishui County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan, has been hailed by netizens as "the loneliest café in the world."

At the summit of the 4,860-meter-high Dagu Glacier, surrounded by ice and snow, stands a gray building — the only structure in the area.

Far from the bustling city, close to nature at its most unfiltered. Instead of asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks, what surrounds you is blue sky and vast white snowfields. It is truly a place to clear the mind.

The manager of the glacier café once mentioned that the infrastructure here was originally sparse — just a simple plank walkway. The café was later expanded from the existing cableway station, and its original purpose was simply to give tourists a place to rest.

The Dagu Glacier was not discovered until 1992, when Japanese scientists observed it via satellite. In August of that year, one of those scientists traveled across the ocean to Heishui County for a week-long expedition, confirming that Dagu Glacier is the world's lowest-altitude, largest-area, and youngest glacier. Because of its unique location and plateau climate, the café is equipped with oxygen generation equipment.

In this rarely visited place, free from the noise of the city, order a cup of coffee, sit by the window, quietly watch the scenery, and settle into the solitude. When others think drinking coffee is already a bourgeois indulgence, we go drink it on a glacier — which makes it all the more refined.

Being wrapped in 360 degrees of snow scenery is a breathtaking sight. Sitting at the highest point and gazing into the distance feels even more powerful than standing on the top floor of the tallest building in a big city looking out over the skyline. In such a "lonely" place, you never actually feel lonely — at the very least, you still have your connection with nature.

Years ago there was a popular "loneliness scale," and drinking coffee alone ranked only third. As someone who joined the workforce and has struggled through it solo — moving apartments alone, seeing a doctor alone, even having surgery alone, all of which rank higher — I can say that drinking coffee alone isn't really lonely at all.

When you are young, you are surrounded by teachers and classmates at school and by family at home; as you grow up, those become memories. I used to dismiss loneliness, but now I am numb to it — it has simply become the norm. After all, we come into this world alone and leave it alone.

Even when friends gather in groups of three or five, that deep feeling of loneliness can still linger inside. So why not let go of these illusory external comforts and face solitude head-on? Perhaps once you get used to it, it is no longer a torment but a pleasure.

Image source: Internet

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A cup of coffee tastes different at 4,860 meters — and the beans you bring along matter just as much as the view. For a brew that matches the clean mountain air, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperation offers jasmine floral notes and bright lemon acidity in a light, elegant cup that suits high-altitude thermoses perfectly. If you want warmth against the glacier chill, the FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon delivers cream, peanut, and cocoa flavors with soft acidity — easy drinking at any temperature, while the Fazenda Rainha Yellow Bourbon adds sugarcane sweetness and a thick, silky body that pairs wonderfully with milk. For an expedition-worthy treat, the FrontStreet Costa Rica Blackberry, black-honey processed, brings raisin and blueberry sweetness with osmanthus and rose fragrance — sweet, layered, and just the thing to sip while the snow falls outside the window.