Shanghai residents will be able to enjoy various brands of coffee – for free – in the coming weeks. With Coffee Culture Week round the corner, the city will once again be adorned with a vibrant aromatic atmosphere.

The 3rd Shanghai Coffee Culture Week will run between May 20 and June 2 as one of the benchmark events of the annual Double Five Shopping Festival. The city will usher in a range of coffee-themed promotion and cultural activities as well as popular coffee bazaars.

"Shanghai is the city with the most cafes in the world, and coffee culture is an important manifestation of haipai (Shanghai-style) culture," said Wang Yayuan, deputy director of the city government's publicity department.

"Coffee Culture Week aims to turn coffee culture into a new world-class calling card for Shanghai," he noted.

Local and boutique coffee brands such as Luckin Coffee, NOWWA and Manner; delivery platforms including Eleme and Meituan; and other cultural units will offer free coffee to residents to celebrate Coffee Culture Week and stimulate local consumption of the brew.

Dozens of coffee-themed bazaars and festivals will be held which will combine coffee with all kinds of recreational activities such as concerts, theater, camping, augmented reality interaction and coffee masters' performances.

Many local iconic scenic spots and brands will mount different styles of distinctive events featuring the integration of coffee and culture. The Shanghai History Museum, for example, will host a "Square Coffee Carnival", which will bring together domestic and international experts in the industry to talk about the past and present of the coffee .

Five million coffee cup holders in a variety of styles, incorporating Shanghai's unique haipai culture, will be launched and delivered to visitors for free at cafes, cultural spaces and art galleries involved across the city.

Coffee companies and e-commerce platforms will initiate promotional, marketing and public activities to boost the coffee industry and do charity work for vulnerable groups. Eleme will launch 20,000 digital collections of coffee-themed hand-drawn drawings by autistic children to help autistic children open up their mind and receive help from the public.

"We plan to sell 500,000 cups decorated with paintings by autistic children to coffee chain stores. The money will be used to fund the treatment of these kids, " said Xiao Shuixian, senor vice president of Eleme.

"It can also serve to awaken their sense of achievement and create more public awareness over their mental health," he added.

The city's 16 districts will also leverage distinctive resources to host a string of coffee-themed events.