Heartwarming Wuhan Lattes
“The ability to meet for a cup of coffee indicates that Wuhan is returning to regular life, which is absolutely the best thing right now. I have confidence in the city’s future.”
On April 8, 2020, after 76 days of lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan reopened. It lifted outbound travel restrictions, dismantled traffic control checkpoints, and gradually resumed normal operation of railways, airports, waterways, highways, and urban buses. The same day, the Guanggu branch of Wakanda Youth Coffee also reopened.
Free Coffee to the Last Drop
“Even if we went out of business due to delivering so many cups of free coffee to frontline healthcare workers, we would have been happy that we did the right thing,” declares Li Fei, one of the founders of Wakanda. “Rather than withering away powerlessly, we were making the right choice—that’s what we thought when we decided to send coffee to nearby hospitals.” Although Wakanda officially reopened its door on April 8, the coffee shop never fully shut down during the Wuhan lockdown. At one point during Wuhan’s fierce fight against the coronavirus, Wakanda was the only coffee shop operating in the city.
More than two years ago, Li and six partners launched Wakanda as a coffee chain in Wuhan. In January 2020, the coronavirus spread throughout the city, causing fewer and fewer people and cars to venture out on the streets, and fewer customers to visit Wakanda. On January 23, the day the city of Wuhan was officially cut off from the outside world, two medical workers from a nearby hospital came to Wakanda to grab some coffee. Seeing their exhaustion after long hours of high-intensity work and hearing about the serious situation plaguing healthcare workers, the whole team immediately realized that they should stay open to supply free coffee to healthcare workers.
On January 24, the first shipment of free coffee was delivered. As of March 8, at least 20,000 cups of free coffee had been offered to medical workers. Along with the coffee, small gifts such as lip balms and toners were also sent. As the epidemic situation worsened, the team temporarily shut down several Wakanda stores in Wuhan for safety