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December 18, 2015

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Young foreigners living their dream in Hangzhou

By Xu Wenwen | December 18, 2015, Friday | Print Edition

AS the night sets in the urban fringes of Hangzhou, neon lights shine bright above noodle booths, small hotels and convenient stores. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, until you take a closer look. Some of the restaurants and shops feature signs written not in Chinese, but in characters unrecognizable to most residents.

That’s exactly what Mohammed Abdullah intended: A sign that is an immediate giveaway that his restaurant won’t dish up fried noodles or wonton soup, but the familiar flavors and ingredients of his Arab home. Chinese people might be confused by the Arabic sign, but that doesn’t bother Abdullah, who hails from Yemen. His customers aren’t the Chinese residents of Hangzhou, but Arabs like him, who have found a home away from home in Hangzhou, and usually study at the nearby colleges.

On his block alone, Abdullah said, there’s hundreds of exchange students from every corner of the world, and the ratio of Chinese and foreigners is almost 50:50.

Abdullah and his three partners, also from Arabic countries, have decided to defer their studies at Hangzhou universities to set up a restaurant that serves fellow Arabs. The idea, he said, was born out of their own need for food that made them miss home a little less.

“We either went to Lanzhou Noodle or Indian restaurants,” Abdullah said. “I could tell that a real Muslim restaurant would be a place for Arabic people here to get-together.”

Abdullah and his partners aren’t the only foreign entrepreneurs in Hangzhou.

More than 20,000 foreigners live in Hangzhou, and more and more, young expatriates are starting to set-up businesses.

George Borrelli, 26, just opened his public WeChat accountant “Hangzhouplus” this month, and will soon launch a matching website that will serve as a cultural exchange platform for people living in Hangzhou.

Borrelli finished his study of International Relations at Zhejiang University last year, and founded Hangzhouplus to “promote the city internationally”, and to give a helping hand to people who have just arrived. The business was inspired by Borrelli’s own struggles when he first came to Hangzhou and found himself mostly interacting with other foreigners.

The experience made him determined to master Mandarin. For an entire year, he studied Chinese for eight hours a day. Today, he speaks Chinese as if he’d always lived in Hangzhou. He even ranked among the top 40 contestants at a Chinese language competition for foreigners.

“Expats are not given many chances to start understanding Hangzhou,” he explained. “I see many foreign students who rarely leave campus, and after graduation they don’t know where to look for a job or how to rent a house.”

Hangzhouplus introduces Chinese and Hangzhou culture in English language while also bringing foreign cultures to Chinese people. People can also sign up for trips, cooking classes or volunteer opportunities.

So far, Hangzhouplus counts about 4,000 users — a number Borrelli hopes to see grow to 20,000 next year.

Unlike Borrelli, who came to Hangzhou for the peaceful lifestyle, Lucas Rondez, used to work at banks in Switzerland and moved here specifically because he saw the opportunity to set up a business. Interactions with Chinese clients in Switzerland made him realize that China is “the best place to start a business”, even if he took a job with a bank in Hangzhou at first.

After seven years of networking and studying Chinese, he started Nihao, an app that helps solve everyday problems that foreigners living in China might face, from paying cellphone and water bills to getting tickets for a movie or a train ride. Popular restaurants and cafes can also be found on the app, Rondez said.

“A foreigner knows what a foreigner needs,” Rondez explained.

An angel investor injected 1.5 million yuan (US$231,400) into the project. Rondez, 32, has 15 years of experience working at banks in Switzerland and in Hangzhou. He speaks fluent Chinese and is well-connected in the city’s finance world — all of which helped him find an angel investor.

The app launched in September and already counts some 20,000 users from 166 countries.

In addition, Nihao also has cooperated with over 1,500 companies, including restaurants, taxi companies, house keeping agencies, and moving companies.

Rondez is proud of the numbers, but said that it’s not just about business anymore.

“To make foreigners enjoy an easier life in China, that is my Chinese dream,” he said.

Hangzhou


 

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