开在悬崖上，飞檐走壁才能去！“最不便利的便利店”火了
Convenience store offers relief for mountain climbers in Hunan

Climbers in Pingjiang, Hunan province, don't have to imagine this. For them, such a store built on a cliff is a reality.

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

Song Huizhou, general manager of Shiniuzhai, said the 2-square-meter convenience store there is built on a mountainside about 120 meters above the ground.

It was constructed in 2017 and opened a year later. Visitors coming to experience the scenic area's rock climbing program are usually amateurs, so they often get hungry and thirsty along the way. The park authority decided to build the store as a refreshment center for them.

It generally takes the climbers nearly one-and-a-half hours to make it to the top.

The drinks and food at the store are carried up by staff members every day. Despite the location and laborious delivery of the products, the prices are similar to those at ordinary stores, Song said.

The climbers are allowed to take one free bottle of water, he said.

Some netizens joked that it is the "least convenient convenience store", while others said they found it "adorable" and that it would be "very cool" to work in the store.

Song said all the buzz online has attracted people from various places to the area.

The store opens at 8 am and closes at 5 pm. A sole cashier is on hand if the store has many customers; if not, the visitors can scan a QR code with their phones to pay for their items, he said.

Safety is also a top priority, and employees routinely conduct maintenance and inspect reinforcements at the store, he added.

"The store is so cool, as you do not come across such a store easily in your daily life," a tourist said. "I will definitely recommend my friends to go rock climbing here. It is challenging and also brings a great sense of achievement."