Beijing’s Best Cafés for Freelancers

If you are a freelancer or enjoy flexible office hours you'll know that there is something wonderfully smug about having the ability to work from home. Nevertheless, many find that the casualness and familiarity of the home office can impact productivity, the logical prescription for which is a change of scenery. For those who aren't quite ready to commit to a coworking space, many of Beijing's cafés offer the facilities and environment you need to keep yourself motivated. These are a few of the best cafés for remote working in Beijing, selected based on factors such as location, seating, availability of plugs, and Wi-Fi connection (ed's note: If you do work out of the office a lot, we highly recommend getting a 4G dongle from China Unicom –  much easier than relying on potentially slow Wi-Fi connections). 

RELATED: Beijing’s Best Coworking Spaces 

Zarah
Is any café more emblematic of the Beijing freelancing scene than Zarah (pictured at top)? It's got everything a Macbook-toting budding freelancer could want, from plug sockets to Wi-Fi to energy sustaining European-style breakfasts. The outside seating in the courtyard is an added bonus, particularly once you've worked into the evening and feel yourself in need of a glass of wine or a cocktail to get the creative juices flowing. They even have occasional office yoga classes to help out your aching spine. 

Pros: Ample seating both inside and out; lots of plugs; a wide variety of food and drinks
Cons: You'll run into at least five people you know

Café Groove (Sanlitun/Worker's Stadium)
Judging by the number of laptops in Café Groove on any given day, it’s a pretty popular place to work. The space is large and often busy but thanks to the high ceilings doesn’t get noisy. They offer a selection of standard coffee and tea (around RMB 20-40), as well as bottled beers if you end up hanging out into the evening. Food isn’t much to shout about but does the job. The Wi-Fi connection is stable if a little slow in the afternoon. 

Pros: Plenty of space to spread out (including room for bigger groups); lots of plug sockets 
Cons: We don’t love the fact that they leave the doors open with the air con pumping in summer

Village Café (Sanlitun)
We’ve always been big fans of Village Café and they have gone from strength to strength over the years, revamping their menu with lots of tasty, healthy options like poke bowls. The light, airy space is a lovely place to work, particularly in the afternoon once the lunch rush has passed and the parasol-shaded terrace outside is an additional bonus. Our only gripe is that the W-Fii isn’t the speediest – but then again, you may find disconnecting for a few hours could be just the motivation you need. 

Pros: Outside seating; healthy (and tasty) food menu
Cons: Slow Wi-Fi; few plug sockets

Starbucks, Pacific Century Place (Sanlitun)
Sometimes you just need a bit of familiarity and what is more familiar to coffee drinkers than Starbucks? The Pacific Century Place branch is 1,000 percent quieter than the one over the road in Taikooli, especially at the weekend. Everything else is exactly what you’d expect from a Starbucks. 

Pros: Quiet, lots of other restaurants and cafés in the building if Starbucks is full
Cons: It’s Starbucks; need to register with a phone number to use the Wi-Fi

Basic Coffee (Jianwai Soho, CBD)
The Jianwai Soho complex has definitely seen better days but what it lacks in charm it makes up for in cafés. Among the many pretenders, Basic Coffee is our favorite, thanks to its plentiful natural light and minimalist design aesthetic. There’s third-wave type coffee if that’s your thing or the regular espresso-based drinks are also competently made. 

Pros: Excellent natural light
Cons: No food menu, only cakes/cookies

Rollbox (Sanlitun)
A dark horse entry on the list, Rollbox isn’t an obvious choice but thanks to fast Wi-Fi, good coffee, and tasty sandwiches, it’s actually a great choice for freelancers. It is a small space, so we wouldn’t encourage you to take up a table for a whole afternoon but we often find ourselves working there for an hour or so over lunch. Try the Thai iced tea if you need a pick-me-up on a hot day. 

Pros: Fast Wi-Fi; quiet mid-morning/mid-afternoon
Cons: Only a handful of table

Arcade (CBD)
Unsurprisingly for a venue located inside a co-working space, Arcade is very freelancer-friendly, with ample seating, decent Wi-Fi, and plenty of both food and drink options to choose from (Hatchery’s own concepts Common Burger and Canteen have something for just about every diet and Big Small Coffee is right next door). Our only gripe is that we find the space a little dark (and that we get distracted by the games machines). 

Pros: Lots of seating; great location in the CBD
Cons: No natural light

Disclaimer: We recognize that this post leans heavily towards venues in Sanlitun/CBD – we're open to suggestions for great cafés outside of these areas, too, drop them in the comments!

More stories by this author here.

READ: A Curated Guide to Beijing’s Startup Scene, pt. 1

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Photos: Zarah, courtesy of the venues, Kyle Mullin, Dazhong Dianping