Alexei Berteig spends four to five hours every afternoon in the same cafe in Beijing.

That cafe makes him feel at home.

"It's just like a cafe you find at a street corner in Toronto," Berteig says.

Nice Italian coffee, reasonable prices, free refills, free access to the Internet, some old couches and tables, piles of books at the corner, a regular clientele...

The atmosphere is perfect for him to write a few lines for his new movie, or prepare his oral English lesson for New Oriental language school.

"That is exactly what I want to present," says Zhuang Songlie, owner of the coffee shop Sculpting In Time Cafe.

"A cafe is not just a place to sell coffee. More importantly, it's a place for you to communicate, to write, to read and to do creative thinking."

Zhuang is one of the hundreds of business people in Beijing who are cashing in on the influx of expatriates and the changing tastes of the nation's tea-drinking public.

But unlike coffee chain giant Starbucks, which is aggressively and swiftly building its coffee business empire in office buildings and crowded shopping boulevards, Sculpting In Time Cafe is like a cat, the company's logo, that does things its own way and in its own time.

Those busy on-the-go executives and professionals, though a huge market, are obviously not among its target customers. They go to Starbucks or some other coffee outlets that complement their fast-moving lifestyles.

At Sculpting in Time, things tend to move along at a much more measured pace. Its clientele looks almost bohemian and its service can be slow. Most of its customers aren't in any hurry.

Nor is Zhuang. He doesn't mind how fast he can open new outlets. He wants Sculpting In Time Cafe to grow into a birthplace of a great poem, a great book, or a great movie script.

Price matters

A movie directing graduate from Beijing Film Academy, Zhuang says he is not a good businessman. But he has obviously done pretty well. He has opened four coffee shops in Beijing since 1997.

The two outlets at Weigongcun and Wudaokou, in Haidian District, which is dubbed "the University Town of Beijing," have long been popular hangouts for university students.

Basil Qu, a junior industrial design major at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), goes to Sculpting In Time at Weigongcun once a week. The cafe is next to BIT.

"It has become an indispensable part of my life," Qu says.

Qu always brings his laptop with him because every table at the cafe has a broadband Internet plug-in. He usually orders a short Caffe Americano at 15 yuan (US$1.80).

"I get free Internet access, and one free refill. And, most importantly, after I finish the coffee, I can still stay there drinking free water," Qu says. "With 15 yuan, I can spend a whole afternoon there, working on my own projects, reading a book or meeting new friends."

Berteig is a frequent guest at Sculpting In Time near Holiday Inn Lido, near Wangjing, the largest international residential community in Beijing.

"Many coffee shops in China that cater to foreigners always presume every foreigner is rich and they charge a fortune for just a cup of coffee," Berteig complains.

"But back home, having a cup of coffee and refill for free is the most natural thing for everybody. It's just ridiculous to spend a fortune here in China."

Uniqueness

While the price, usually 15-25 per cent lower than Starbucks, of the coffee made from "illy" beans is one factor that attracts consumers, the unique flavour of each Sculpting In Time cafe is also enchanting.

"Maybe because my wife and I studied in art, we don't like to copy things. Being creative has always been our goal," Zhuang says.

"But each cafe, no matter how different it might look, must have one thing in common encouraging people to communicate, to read and to imagine."

Designed to cater to students, the third floor of the cafe at Wudaokou is converted into a small oral English classroom on weekends.

Its only difference from a real classroom is you can always smell ground coffee aroma during the class and enjoy a cup of delicious Cappuccino when having a break.

The outlet at the foot of the Fragrant Hill boasts the best view of the four cafes.

The tranquility and natural, rustic feel of the mountain region provides the perfect backdrop for the cafe.

The large back room spills out into the garden area, and it is surrounded by towering trees and brick walls.

Two kitties might curl up at your feet while you sit in the garden sipping a cup of coffee during a sunny afternoon.

At the cafe in the Wangjing area, a huge blackboard, about four metres wide, is installed on the wall.

Someone has drawn a man with the face of a cat on the blackboard. The man, with one hand holding his cheek and the other holding a cup of coffee, is daydreaming.

And the rest of the blackboard is yours. You may leave a message, or write a few lines about your feelings, or draw a little picture only you can understand.

"We want adults to maintain the feeling of doodling or drawing they enjoyed as children," Zhuang says.

What's common among the cafes are books and magazines stacked on the shelves, film advertisements hung randomly on the wall, and a message board for short notices and move and rent information.

Cafe with a story

Many customers at Sculpting In Time, who are now good friends of Zhuang and his wife, were first attracted to the cafe by the story behind it.

Zhuang first met his wife on the train to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 1996 during his last summer vacation. The two backpackers fell in love during the trip.

Zhuang had planned to shoot a movie for his graduation. He got more than 200,000 yuan (US$25,000) from his parents and a friend had planned to find some other sponsors.

But in the end, less than 150,000 yuan (US$18,000) was left after "dating Kitty (his wife's nickname), renting a place to live and finally getting married," Zhuang recalls.

The sponsors never showed up.

"We have to make a living," Zhuang says. He was looking for a business that could meet all his needs - drinking coffee, reading books, meeting new friends, and convenient access to a university's sports area.

He and his wife, Li Ruofan, finally decided to open a small caf, and they chose a spot, with a courtyard of their own in a small hutong, near Peking University's east gate, an area famous for its tiny bookshops.

They named it after the diaries of legendary Russian film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky: "Sculpting in Time."

"In his diaries, a movie is a means of taking an impression of time. I hope my cafe also plays such a role in people's lives," Zhuang says.

In 1997, the first Sculpting In Time Cafe was born. It had fewer than 10 tables.

Unfortunately, it was demolished in 2001 during the reconstruction of that area. The couple, and some long-time customers, still miss that cafe.

"We didn't make money from it, but we did accumulate a consumer base starting from that coffee shop," Zhuang says.

He is now busy dishing out freshly ground coffee beans with the brand of "Sculpting In Time."

He is also holding an essay contest named "The Best of Times." Anybody can enter and write something about a cafe or coffee. Winners will get free coupons and little souvenirs. The contest drew more than 400 contestants in 2003.

Still wanna shoot a movie?

Well, Zhuang hopes someone will make a TV series like "Friends" at Sculpting In Time Cafe.

(China Daily 04/21/2005 page24)