The World’s Most Inconvenient Convenience Store Is Located On The Side Of A Mountain

The name “convenience store” implies that it’s somewhere easy to get to, and necessary to exist. Convenience stores are a dime a dozen in America, but one particular convenience store in China is causing quite the stir on the internet.

A Good Spot for Beginners

The Shiniuzhai region of the Hunan province in China is a sought-after location for mountain climbers. The views are stunning, the climbs are challenging, and it’s become known as a place for amateur rock climbers to cut their teeth on the sport.

One particular climb goes up the sheer face of a mountain, straight up and down for hundreds of meters. Many of the climbers who attempt this climb are amateurs, and in that, one enterprising man saw an opportunity to provide for climbers and to make a little bit of money.

A Clear Necessity

Song Huizhou, the general manager of the Shiniuzhai scenic area, saw a change to help out climbers, who, due to their inexperience, often came underprepared for some of the more challenging climbs. Novice climbers only know what they know, and he didn’t want them turned off of the sport just because of a single bad experience.

Therefore, he thought of a solution. An area where climbers could refill their water and snacks seemed like an obvious necessity. The geography made picking a location difficult, and the area that Huizhou settled on was neither obvious, nor easy to construct.

Tiny, But Mighty

The two meter square convenience store is built off the side of a cliff in one of Shiniuzhai’s more challenging climbs, directly into the wall of the mountain. Construction on the space broke ground in 2017, and the store officially opened for business a year later.

This might seem like a long time to wait for the store to open, given how small the space constructed is. When you consider the difficult location of the store as well as how challenging it would have been to transport materials so that building could happen at all, though, it becomes a little more clear.

Small Staffing

The space is staffed by one national park member per day, and the employees are required to haul the supplies up to the space daily. The convenient store lives alongside an 800 meter via ferrata route. “Via ferrata” is Italian for “iron way,” and it refers to a climbing route that has metal anchors and other structures installed directly into the rock in order to create a safer climbing experience.

The route up to the convenient store is up a sheer cliff face, and it’s estimated that the climb takes approximately 90 minutes. When climbers get there, though, they’re provided a bottle of water for free from the park staff, and can purchase other drinks and snacks to stock up before continuing on their climb.

Daily Hours

The store is open from 9 AM to 5 PM daily, though the manager of the park did state that some days, when visitors are light, they’ll leave the little shack unmanned. That doesn’t mean that climbers are left high and dry during their travels, though!

On days when there’s not an employee staffing the convenience store, the manager of the park said that climbers can still get snacks and water and choose to pay with a digital option and a QR code. This adds an extra level of convenience to the store, particularly because the prices for food and snacks are comparable to any other store on the ground.

A Second Life on the Internet

The store caused some buzz when it first opened back in 2018, but it’s recently been making headlines due to a feature that was run on the store in China Daily, a state-run English-language publication. The feature brought the tiny convenience store into internet prominence, and the Hunan province of China along with it.

Reactions from people across the world have been varied. Some people have been fascinated by the idea, and impressed by the ingenuity that it would take to build a tiny shack into the side of a mountain. Others have been confused, wondering at the purpose. And, of course, still others simply didn’t care.

Brave Men’s Bridge

The world’s most inconvenient convenience store is not the only reason to make your way to China’s Hunan province, if you’re the adventuring type. The “Brave Men’s Bridge” opened in 2015, and was China’s first glass-bottomed bridge that opened to the public.

Brave Men’s Bridge is a suspension bridge with a fully glass bottom that is 300 meters long, and 180 meters above the ground. The length spans several canyons, and the name comes from the saying that anyone who is able to fully traverse the bridge is a “truly brave man.”

Two Out of Many Different Sights

The world’s most inconvenient convenience store and the Brave Men’s Bridge are only two of the spectacular sights to see in the Hunan province of China. While these are sights to see for more outdoorsy or adventurous types, there are plenty of other attractions for those willing to sweat a little and exert a little energy.

For those willing to brave it, the convenience store built into the side of a cliff might end up being the story of a lifetime. Yes, there are plenty of people who scale the face of the cliff and pass by the store every single day, but each traveling story is unique, and scaling a cliff in China to get water from a store on the side of a mountain is an experience that might just take the cake.