Convenience store in the mountains: A refreshing oasis for climbers

Imagine yourself getting thirsty or hungry during a mountain climbing exercise and there is a convenience store right beside you, offering food and drinks, how great is that?

The convenience store is what a scenic spot in Pingjiang, Hunan province offers to mountain climber lovers.

The Shiniuzhai scenic area is famous for towering cliffs, deep canyons, and unique rock formations. It is also known for its glass-bottomed bridge, which is one of the longest and highest glass bridges in the world.

Song Huizhou, general manager of the Shiniuzhai scenic area, said the two-square-meter convenient store is built at a mountain cliff of more than 100 meters. It was first built in 2017 and opened a year later.

Visitors coming to experience the rock climbing program are often amateurs, so they often get thirsty and hungry along the way, so the area decided to built the store as a refreshing center for them, which stood at 120 meters.

It usually takes them almost one-and-a-half hours to finish the climbing.

The drinks and food are carried by staff at Shiniuzhai every day. Travelers can get one bottle of free water and pay if they want more, Song said. However, all the drinks and food sold there at prices similar to common stores and the area does not hike up their prices, he said.

The store opens at 8 am and closes at 5 pm. If there are not many visitors, there is no cashier at the store and travelers can scan the QR code and pay themselves, he added.