Three Hours Drinking on the Curb | 5Y Capital Tavern Vol. 12 x On the Road Kang Yang
For your boundless ambition.
5Y Capital Pub Notes
What is Gonglu Shangdian (Road Shop)?
In the memory of the Chinese internet, someone first asked this question on social media in 2015, and to this day there are still different answers. A WeChat public account founded in 2014 that regularly produced viral articles. A street-side liquor store with the most social media clout, where every night young people stand under plane trees or sit on curbs, drinking and chatting, raising their glasses when the mood strikes.
Gonglu Shangdian has accumulated more labels — a club on the street, a gathering place for trendsetters, an alcohol ATM, a social punishment school for young people... You can define Gonglu Shangdian infinitely, just as founder Kang Yang says: when you define Gonglu Shangdian, you're really defining yourself as the definer.
This episode's guest at the 5Y Capital Pub is Kang Yang, founder of Gonglu Shangdian. We sat on a Shanghai curb, drinking different beers from Gonglu Shangdian, and listened to Kang Yang tell the story of the brand.
The location was Kang Yang's choice: Friday night, across from Gonglu Shangdian at 126 Chengdu South Road, with the flow of pedestrians and traffic behind us. Kang Yang took us to several other Gonglu Shangdian locations, from Chengdu South Road to Changle Road, passing through Julu Road and found158, still packed with people at 1 a.m. Kang Yang said, "I hope that through Gonglu Shangdian, we can connect the city and become part of its public infrastructure."
We have to admit, before this we had some fixed impressions of Gonglu Shangdian — as if it belonged to "alt-culture trendsetters," "social butterflies," or "young people who just look cool." This pub session was also a process of dismantling those biases. The street means human vitality, spontaneity, inclusivity, life force — not distinctions by geography, age, or identity. Gonglu Shangdian belongs to everyone.
During our street-side chat, a longtime fan of Gonglu Shangdian passed by and raised some questions with Kang Yang. She also shared her own view of the brand: "It's a public account I won't unfollow for now, one I've followed the longest. It's an occasionally available lifestyle choice — the idea that you can still stay in hostels at 40."
Just like Gonglu Shangdian's soul slogan: "For your boundless ambition." Kang Yang said he hopes everyone can break through some fixed experiences and biases, not limiting how they define Gonglu Shangdian, nor limiting how they define anything.
When you see how many possibilities Gonglu Shangdian can have, you'll also have more courage to do what you want, unconstrained by your own biases. We hope this episode of the 5Y Capital Pub can inspire you too — and that you'll go have a drink at Gonglu Shangdian :)
01
What Does Drinking on the Street Mean?
5Y Capital Pub: What is Gonglu Shangdian?
Tong Ji: My intuitive feeling is that it's a group of young people enjoying the present moment in a very natural, unsegregated environment. You can buy a drink you like on the street, feel the breeze — it's a beautiful scene of people together.
Kang Yang: If the city is one giant public space, I think it's the smoking room of that public space. Here the boundary between public and private isn't so strong. People can do what they want, with no authority or rules. The doors at Gonglu Shangdian are all open, like an underpass or a subway entrance — public spaces don't need doors.
Tong Ji: The smoking room might be one concrete representation you're thinking of, but it could be many things.
Kang Yang: I've also been thinking lately about how we define things. You could say it's a nighttime club, or a nighttime home, or a drunk's gas station, a public runway show, or a social punishment school for young people. Everyone has their way of defining it. When something can be infinitely defined, it becomes undefinable.
Tong Ji: For example, I see you sometimes play music on the second floor, and it becomes a concert hall. You could show movies and it becomes a cinema.
Kang Yang: Right, some neighbors on the second floor sometimes share their bedrooms with us, and we set up DJ booths there.
Tong Ji: So defining Gonglu Shangdian is also about what this group of people does here besides drinking.
Kang Yang: What Gonglu Shangdian is depends on what kind of gaze the definer wants to use. Defining Gonglu Shangdian is also defining yourself.
5Y Capital Pub: Did you have any particular experiences before this that influenced or inspired you to create Gonglu Shangdian?
Kang Yang: Actually, I want to talk about the source of rebellion.
A writer I really likes summarized his childhood with three book titles: the first was an ignorant child, the second a not-very-smart teenager, the third should be called an ambitious high school sophomore. That probably describes my growth process too.
I can't recall much from childhood, but some images are especially clear. I remember very distinctly: there was a classmate whose parent had a good relationship with the teacher. That classmate made some mistake — I can't remember what exactly — but the teacher explained in front of the whole class why he was moved to the front row, and it had nothing to do with the actual situation. It was pure favoritism.
Even in a kindergarten environment, that instantly made me feel an indescribable emotion. Now I can interpret it as a sense of inequality, but at the time my natural reaction was to start distrusting the teacher. He believed class rankings could prove differences between people, so I did the exact opposite.
In this process I actually created an absurd, chaotic value system. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but the direction was simply opposite to so-called authority. Countless experiences since then have felt like reproductions of this scene.
I think from when I had memories, I felt the distinctions between people, and these distinctions repelled me. They constructed a hierarchy among people, which could later evolve into status and rank. This approach struck me as completely lacking in human wisdom — people should be equal, and your tastes are what distinguish you. This relates to how we run Gonglu Shangdian now.
Tong Ji: For example, when everyone stands on the street, you don't want there to still be front-row students at Gonglu Shangdian today.
Kang Yang: Exactly. We don't want to distinguish people by how much they spend, who came first, or their social background. The curb is the cheapest VIP booth. There's no difference in social roles here. You are you, I am me. What connects us is mutual honesty and curiosity.
We always joke: no service means no bad reviews. Actually, service is an inequality in the relationship between you and me. Even in the commercial world, we want to build a kind of public, shared service, not a hierarchical order.
5Y Capital Pub: You've also mentioned the magazine Whole Earth Catalog before. What influence did it have on you?
Kang Yang: In college I really liked hitchhiking, budget travel — these probably Western-imported cultures, hippies, rock music. That magazine was called the hippie bible at the time. I also made a publication in college called On the Road, as an homage. They mainly talked about self-education, constructing a value system where people should constantly explore their inner boundaries.
Tong Ji: Maybe it gave you a kind of power — that being different from others is okay too. With that power comes some courage to change things.
Kang Yang: Actually I can't really introduce every single thing they did. I think everything I've encountered in the past was perhaps mysteriously connected, but what they were doesn't matter — what mattered was who you were at that time. Everything you like is your mode of expression. Abandon refinement, pursue creativity by any means necessary.
These cultures are like a memory. I don't know what they changed, but they probably gave me some inspiration and courage. They made me realize that people like this exist in the world — even when broke, you can still live that way. I don't want to deviate from my own path just to rebel against things, but rather learn how to create the value I truly want.
02
A Kind of Urban Public Service
5Y Capital Pub: Were you excited the first time you saw so many people gathered outside Gonglu Shangdian?
Kang Yang: I was incredibly nervous. When the first Gonglu Shangdian got crowded, it basically blocked both lanes of the street. Actually, the original reason we wanted to open a second store was to divert traffic, to avoid causing problems for public transportation.
At first people had to queue to buy drinks, which wasn't what we wanted to see either. I hope people can easily and comfortably join this lifestyle, rather than being fixed to one location. What we want to build isn't a community culture based on geography, but one based on spiritual connection.
But we waited a year before opening more stores. Because we had to think clearly: beyond commercial considerations, what values would drive us to do this? In this market environment, once something is proven profitable, people may frantically copy it. More capital entering could mean a loss of creativity, and we didn't want to become that.
We opened a few stores across from and near the original location, hoping that in the future, people in a city can walk between different stores, connecting the city through Gonglu Shangdian. We can arrange different content in each store, like free music and performances. In Japan, public toilets were integrated into convenience stores, indirectly solving urban sanitation problems. Now almost every one of our stores has a restroom, and after 9 p.m. it becomes the only public toilet on that street.
We'll also try to build various small functions, establish trust systems, and become a public service facility for the city at night.
5Y Capital Pub: What considerations go into Gonglu Shangdian's alcohol selection?
Kang Yang: We have some selection criteria. We look for different drinks from around the world. The brewing process is also like an artistic creation process — it incorporates various elements to create endlessly changing flavors. That's its mode of expression, so we also care whether there's some mysterious formula in the drink.
We also care about the positive effects of alcohol on people, and the relationship between alcohol and creators — what kinds of drinks rock bands, hip-hop groups, and literary writers like. Also drinks that appear in films and drive the plot forward, like the beer they drank on the rooftop in The Shawshank Redemption. We care about the values of different alcohol brands, about alcohol's relationship to women's power, and about small-batch, uncommercialized craft distilleries that produce very limited quantities — many you drink once and never again. We also care about local flavors. Every Gonglu Shangdian region has a dedicated shelf for local specialties we discovered while traveling in certain counties and cities.
Our stores are small, but inventory turns over every month, expanding our display area through rotation. So we need commercialization and scale to achieve numerous SKUs, which also serves customers' diverse needs.
We hope to build something with local creativity that's also global, hoping to open Gonglu Shangdian in more cities around the world.
Gonglu Shangdian during the World Cup
5Y Capital Pub: Do you pay special attention to store layout and design?
Kang Yang: We don't renovate. However a store looks when we rent it, we basically just hang a sign and open. No additional investment.
Patagonia donated its shares to the planet for environmental protection. Our approach is to not damage the planet in how we operate. There's a Buddhist saying: if you seek the Tathagata through sound, color, or form, you walk an evil path. Why should you pay more for better decoration, bigger speakers, stronger lighting — these external things? People are doing themselves, not brought by external environments or decorative appearances. Everyone has their own style; you don't need to pay a premium for someone else's style.
Our pricing is convenience-store style. The same bottle might cost three times as much at a nearby bar. We also don't do drink recommendations — we prefer users choose for themselves. We just need to exist.
Tong Ji: From a business perspective, what you're describing saves a huge amount of opening costs, but that's not actually your consideration — it's a natural result.
Kang Yang: Like the British sitcom Black Books — a weird old man opens a bookstore, books are piled everywhere, you just pick for yourself. It gives you a rule of no rules, where you don't need to be demanded or commanded.
In a sense, Gonglu Shangdian restores a kind of wilderness civilization in the city, like ancient caves where people sat on the ground, pursuing inner freedom. There's a line under Gonglu Shangdian's cups: we're like farmers guarding the land, hoping to be guardians of the soul, ensuring there's always the diversity and freedom of the wilderness there.
5Y Capital Pub: How did these styles or characteristics form, or when did you think them through?
Kang Yang: I think they accumulated from countless responses from people who love Gonglu Shangdian, and we're constantly improving.
03
Gonglu Shangdian Through the Eyes of a Longtime Fan
During our street interview, a longtime Gonglu Shangdian reader/user overheard our discussion and asked Kang Yang some questions. For long-term followers: after scaling up, has Gonglu Shangdian changed?
User: I've really followed you guys for a long time, about seven or eight years. I have a question. I feel like in the beginning you had more sharpness, more poverty, more aggression. Now... of course I've changed too, because I work, I have money, I'm not so sharp anymore. I can defuse everything with a smile, I'm more humorous, more suited to this world.
Kang Yang: Thank you for seeing us that way. A writer from Buenos Aires had a famous quote. At seventeen you're full of curiosity about the world. In your twenties you feel the world belongs to you. But when you're in your thirties, you realize everything you see is something that could destroy the world.
So whether Gonglu Shangdian has changed, I don't know — but perhaps your way of seeing the world has changed too. Like you said, Gonglu Shangdian was very sharp at first, and now you feel it's become more peaceful, more service-oriented, more calm or humorous.
User: Or perhaps richer too. Because poverty is always sharper; having money makes you more peaceful.
Kang Yang: Actually regarding money, having no money and being poor are two different concepts. Take my life creed: I've always hoped to maintain a poor lifestyle, to keep your thinking sharp — but you need to have money (laughs).
User: Like working at a big tech company but still staying in hostels at forty. Or perhaps you've ridden enough waves of young people, so it's impossible to be poor anymore.
Kang Yang: You're right too. But how I view all this now, I'm not entirely sure. I can only say our crowd is very diverse. Some people say we're very "sub," and I can't find a more accurate word, so let's go with "sub." But this word can describe both an underground band and a small-town youth with dyed hair in a fifth-tier city. What they have in common is always not being noticed by the mainstream, to the point where even their modes of expression aren't noticed.
We've tried to express these diverse groups in the past, but mostly failed. So for us, we hope everyone can break through some fixed experiences and biases. Take Gonglu Shangdian's name — we've always hoped people don't define what a "shop" is through fixed experience. When one day people realize Gonglu Shangdian can do so many things, they'll also have more courage to do what they want, rather than being limited by their inner biases.
User: Perhaps throwing yourself into the wave of capital is also one of the new boundaries of the era. I've gone through this process myself — in high school I read a lot of critical articles, and now I work at a big tech company making money.
Kang Yang: So you're drinking. (Clinks glasses)
5Y Capital Pub: What do you think Gonglu Shangdian is?
User: It's a public account I won't unfollow for now, one of the longest I've followed, an occasionally available lifestyle where you can still stay in hostels at 40.
04
Celebrating the Overlooked, the Abnormal
5Y Capital Pub: As Gonglu Shangdian opens more stores and scales up, more people may have the same question as that passerby reader just now: has Gonglu Shangdian changed? What cannot change or be lost?
Kang Yang: I've always hoped Gonglu Shangdian would be in a state of active sharing. We have over 1,000 kinds of drinks; everyone who comes can always find what they want.
I hope Gonglu Shangdian can provide a sense of presence, letting everyone enjoy the here and now. We're often swept up in the vortex of the era; sometimes we need to return to reality, feel real scenes, connect with others — this can alleviate some loneliness or anxiety.
Often when you consume at various places, the more you buy the lonelier you get. The reason you're buying may actually amplify your loneliness. But at Gonglu Shangdian, we hope for more trust, connection, and creativity. Drinking is like a ritual of return; alcohol can also break down barriers between people. When people gather together is when they're most creative.
Tong Ji: My actual experience is the same. I remember when I didn't know Kang Yang yet, the first time I went to Gonglu Shangdian, it was full of people. People were very close to each other, but there was a strong sense of trust, like my happiness was surrounded by lots of happiness. You don't feel it's noisy — you feel happy.
I think Gonglu Shangdian has an anti-utilitarian culture. People are equal, and drinks are equal.
Kang Yang: This generation of young people has more awareness and growth. They especially know that advertising done for commercial purposes is not literature at all. They also know whether what you're doing is seducing them to consume, is uncreative repetition, or whether you really have the courage to explore.
We hope to turn Gonglu Shangdian into a public service for the city, where people feel joy rather than tension — whether in its atmosphere, style, or pricing. Of course we encounter some problems too; we try to avoid many things. For example, cleaning costs more than people might know. After everyone leaves, we clean the street every day.
5Y Capital Pub: There are now other stores imitating Gonglu Shangdian's approach. Does that concern you?
Kang Yang: I don't care about that. Gonglu Shangdian has been copied and plagiarized a lot in just two years, which precisely proves that Gonglu Shangdian has the ability to construct a sense of ritual that draws people in. I also hope more people participate. It indirectly proves our business model.
5Y Capital Pub: Which cities will Gonglu Shangdian open in recently? What kind of city needs Gonglu Shangdian?
Kang Yang: We hope to go to cities more likely to embrace different lifestyles. Though I believe all cities have this inclusivity.
This is also a kind of urban self-rescue movement. Because many spaces that originally belonged to you have been massively occupied by commercial advertising — your parks, elevators, public rest areas have all become billboards seducing you to consume. At this point you need a guerrilla mode of expression, to find places that belong to you. People who can feel this wild, growing vitality will instinctively gather together.
The meaning of street culture is that people can gather together. Returning to the street is actually returning to a possibility of de-commercialization. The street means human vitality, cheapness, equality, inclusivity, spontaneity, no rules — it's precisely these things that make people feel happy, and this happiness is free. Besides Gonglu Shangdian, many people are doing this kind of thing.
In the past we made culture into a shop, to explore how the world shapes us. But one day we realized we also have the possibility of providing value to the world, so we decided to make the shop into a kind of culture.
We spent about seven years preparing before starting to do this. We're also thinking: why open so many stores? If you don't want to be defined, you need to define yourself in infinite ways. Since you're already riding the waves of urbanization, you have to learn how to surf.
5Y Capital Pub: Sometimes when we come to Gonglu Shangdian, we feel "this person looks like they definitely work at Gonglu Shangdian" — like there's some commonality. How do you think about hiring?
Kang Yang: Each colleague probably has a different situation. But one thing is, I think they need to fit Gonglu Shangdian's values. They need to actively share, not distinguishing the cost of sharing based on someone's identity or characteristics.
Also, I think they should celebrate the overlooked and celebrate the abnormal. When we encounter people or things with huge differences from ourselves, beyond our existing cognition, we should instinctively celebrate rather than defend. This is Gonglu Shangdian's value system. We care whether someone is this kind of person.
05
Giving Unique People the Right to Choose
Kang Yang: I think 5Y Capital is an investor that all entrepreneurs dream of but rarely find. You've invested in many well-known internet companies, tech industry chain companies — why did you choose Gonglu Shangdian?
Tong Ji: In the consumer space, we actually want to find a representative work of a generation's lifestyle. Very few categories or brands fit this description. Gonglu Shangdian showed us a possibility for a generation's lifestyle, which is extremely rare and scarce. And I remember the first time I met Kang Yang, I saw what the founder who created this cultural label might look like, and it also fit our values very well.
Kang Yang: Some of my colleagues and classmates often ask: will investors order you around? Maybe they don't understand the relationship between institutions and entrepreneurs that well, and feel like investors will give us a lot of pressure or control. What do you think?
Tong Ji: This is also like defining Gonglu Shangdian — defining investment institutions can also have many perspectives. For example, investment needs returns, which is one perspective and completely correct. But there's another perspective: we also hope to create greater value for the world, to have more impact. Defining an investment institution is also defining yourself.
Kang Yang: We also have some preferences when choosing investment institutions, though of course mostly we're passive. But I'm very moved by all my investors — they all deeply participate in the culture that Gonglu Shangdian is building. Basically every investor who comes gets dragged by me to buy drinks for the whole house. My ideal is still to create a free-drinking mechanism in Shanghai, so every store has a bell — ring it and you buy for everyone.
I also have a tricky question: are investment institutions very rational, choosing investments based on calculation, or is there also uncontrollable, unavoidable personal preference mixed in?
Tong Ji: I think the rational perspective definitely accounts for the vast majority. If it's just blind preference, that's unprofessional. But on this foundation, we'll choose entrepreneurs who fit our values, looking for like-minded people. There's also emotional judgment in this, just like how you'll choose employees who fit Gonglu Shangdian's values.
Kang Yang: During the pandemic we were also indebted to you, which was crucial.
Tong Ji: So seeing today's scene makes me especially happy.
5Y Capital Pub: If you were to recommend one drink for the 5Y Capital Pub, which would it be?
Kang Yang: That actually depends on 5Y's taste and aesthetics. For me, aesthetics is really about who you're willing to give the right to choose, whose understanding you're willing to accommodate, what you're willing to applaud — and only then is there so-called definition of beauty.
Tong Ji: If I simply summarize our aesthetic: it's things that create huge positive value for the world, which may not be recognized by most people at first. Are you looking for a drink that's not recognized by most people but is very good?
Kang Yang: You're giving unique people a right to choose, and this uniqueness initially comes with a kind of crisis.
Tong Ji: Wonderfully summarized.
Kang Yang: The connection between Gonglu Shangdian and 5Y Capital actually has its commonalities.
Tong Ji: We also hope Gonglu Shangdian can forever preserve that original intention. I think on the forward path, this driving force is the most important, and also our most unique quality.
Interactive Gift
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5Y Capital seeks, supports, and inspires lonely entrepreneurs, providing support from spiritual to all operational aspects. We believe that if the you whom others see as crazy starts to be believed in, the world will become refreshingly different.
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