Miao Ge Café

The cafe's unofficial signboard

Pingtan, a breezy outpost off Fujian's coast and China's second international tourism island after Hainan, has quietly gained a new landmark where lattes meet rescue tails. 

A furry resident dozes, using a phone as its pillow

In the village of Zilan, Macau-born designer Sam and his wife, Minmin, have turned a decade-old, abandoned seaside ruin into "Miao Ge," a pet-friendly café that now shelters seven cats and one dog once left on the streets.

Founders Minmin (left) and Sam (right)  

Sam, who once designed toys for a Shenzhen studio, and Minmin, his chatty partner, quit their jobs in 2022. They embarked on a motorcycle journey along the border of the country and settled in Pingtan after they learned from a friend that Pingtan has one of the most beautiful beaches in the country. 

Seaview coffee spot on the ground floor

Stairs leading up to the second floor  

The washbasin Minmin poured her heart into designing   

The couple dragged 320 meters of pipe and 420 meters of cable across the dunes themselves. "Every sunny day, I scrubbed salt-frosted windows until they turned crystal clear—and suddenly, it felt like the ocean had poured into the panes," Minmin says of the renovation marathon. Out of the dust rose a three-storey wood-and-stucco house with paw-print doormats, iron-cat railings and a second-floor cat kingdom built from driftwood.

Coffee "Sicily" 

Coffee "Comic Cloud"

Inside, Sam hand-pumps every espresso on a manual lever machine he calls "a tribute to mechanical beauty." The house brew Sicily harmonizes bitter espresso, bright Sprite, and sun-ripened lemon in strata of onyx, ivory, and gold. "Stir-sip the top first, then plunge the straw to the bottom and let the bubbles explode," Minmin instructs. The viral "Comic Cloud" floats a dome of milk foam so fluffy it mirrors Pingtan's afternoon cumulus; guests post photos of cup against sky before taking a sip.

Miao Ge's furry residents  

A cat peeking out from the second-floor loft  

Each animal carries a story. The black cat "Chief Boss" sneezes whenever he drinks—an injury from a wire once jammed through his palate in his roaming days. The dog "Pop Star" flops belly-up for every child. "He has no ego," Minmin laughs.

Friends from Seoul to Shenzhen have mailed masks, books, and battered doors that now serve as tables. During construction, Sam held his phone aloft for live "supervision calls." "Lin, will this wall colour be too loud?" he asked one night. The result is an eclectic mix that Minmin calls "a memory exchange."

A young guest's bonding time with the café's cats and dogs  

A mother from Pingtan brings her toddler twice a week: "My child clings to Pop Star—it's impossible to drag them away." A backpacker from Jieyang notes, "The cats jump into your lap; the owners share their newest island finds without being asked."

Second-floor seats overlooking the beach  

Sam flexes the forearm he built on the lever machine. "Real men use manual," he jokes, then adds, "We're slow, but strong."