The eighth Lujiazui Coffee Festival took place on Oct 18-22 in Lujiazui – a central business district in the Pudong New Area in East China's Shanghai – attracting a record 270 coffee brands.

During the opening ceremony, the Tourism Victoria Office of Australia and the Pudong New Area Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau jointly launched the Aussie Coffee Month initiative.

Premium coffee shops from Sydney, such as Meraki Coffee and Stitch Coffee and Toybox Coffee from Brisbane – another city in Australia – were involved. They opened temporary outlets in Lujiazui Central Greenland, a lush green space in the middle of Lujiazui's skyscrapers.

What's more, coffee fans were also able to try out Asian boutique coffee shops on-site, including Homeground Coffee Roaster from Singapore, Roast8ry from Chiang Mai, Glitch Tokyo from Tokyo and Fritz Company from Seoul.

In addition, a dozen domestic cities selected by votes from coffee enthusiasts – including Baotou, Guilin, Shenyang, Qingdao, Hefei, Chongqing and Kunming – participated.

Of these, coffee from South West China's Yunnan province took center stage, with the organizers facilitating international exchanges, resource sharing and collaborative promotions to help it gain recognition from global consumers.

A Yunnan coffee stand welcomes customers at the eighth Lujiazui Coffee Festival. [Photo/eastday.com]

To top it off, the first Lujiazui International Coffee Forum was held at the Shanghai International Convention Center.

It brought together coffee industry experts from at home and abroad to explore more possibilities for the industry's sustainable development – through speeches, roundtable discussions and other forms of interaction.