German lives and loves happily in Jiading
By Lu Xiaofeng and Chen Ye |
March 29, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
When customers first visit Yide Restaurant in Changji Street, Anting Town, it's like stepping into a little piece of Germany with the country's flags hanging on the door and German magazines on the bookshelf.
In fact, everything in Yide reflects the inseparable relationship between its owner and Germany.
The owner, Dieter Pospiech, is a typical German, but his wife Li Yifei is a local Wuxi girl. The restaurant's name Yide is an anagram derived from "yi," his wife's first name, and "de" from Pospiech's nationality.
Pospiech, 54, is tall and a hulky and likes to wear a leather vest at work, making him look like a lumberjack.
He was assigned to Anting Town in May 1999 by a German vehicle accessory company to install Shanghai Volkswagen Company's vehicle assembly line. A month later, he met Li at work and they fell in love.
"I want to open a Western restaurant in Anting, can you help me?" Pospiech asked Li in 2000.
"Um, I guess I can help you with daily matters, but where can we find a chef?" she asked.
Pospiech smiles as he talks about the restaurant.
"I was confident about the new business, because when I was a child my mother opened a bakery which helped me a lot," he said.
The couple opened the restaurant in February 2000 at a time when Pospiech's work required him to travel regularly between Germany and Jiading, so Li quit her job and focused on the business.
As a qualified chef could not be easily found, Pospiech himself trained a newly recruited chef.
More foreigners started living in Anting as new companies invested in Jiading, so Yide Restaurant's profits grew as it became more popular.
In 2004, Pospiech quit his job in Germany and immigrated to Jiading.
But all was not smooth in the restaurant as the chefs he trained kept on quitting to work at other establishments.
So he decided to take over the restaurant's kitchen himself.
Yide Restaurant usually opens from 4pm everyday and Pospiech arrives at 3pm to have a drink with early customers.
He is busier handling the increasing number of customers and sometimes has to act as an interpreter for waiters whose English is not so good.
Although his Chinese is not so good, he gets along well with his staff and they have a good working relationship.
People may think marrying a foreigner is a little bit crazy, but Li doesn't think so.
Her most unforgettable experience was in 2002 when Dieter took her back to Germany.
"It was a small town in Bavaria state, and there was no building higher than four floors," Li recalled the visit over a month. "The town was extremely clean and the air was so fresh." Pospiech also took her to Austria and his parents treated her like their own daughter.
Just like other people who marry someone from a different country, they also encountered problems in their daily life.
The biggest conflict between them concerned where to live. Li wanted to stay with her parents but Dieter insisted on living separately.
"I felt weird about having to live with her parents because in my country when people have their own family they live apart from their parents," Pospiech said.
To resolve the issue to everyone's satisfaction, Li's parents found a nearby house so they could take care of the couple.
Also, Dieter and Li have different ideas about children.
Li thinks they should be strict with the children and Dieter believes the kids should enjoy their life.
"We've got used to each other since we have been living together for more than 10 years," said Li.
Just like his fellow countrymen, Pospiech is interested in football and F1 racing, never missing any F1 events in Jiading.
He loves to invite friends to his restaurant to enjoy food and beer and watch sport.
"I do enjoy my life, leisurely, carefree and busy," he said.
In fact, everything in Yide reflects the inseparable relationship between its owner and Germany.
The owner, Dieter Pospiech, is a typical German, but his wife Li Yifei is a local Wuxi girl. The restaurant's name Yide is an anagram derived from "yi," his wife's first name, and "de" from Pospiech's nationality.
Pospiech, 54, is tall and a hulky and likes to wear a leather vest at work, making him look like a lumberjack.
He was assigned to Anting Town in May 1999 by a German vehicle accessory company to install Shanghai Volkswagen Company's vehicle assembly line. A month later, he met Li at work and they fell in love.
"I want to open a Western restaurant in Anting, can you help me?" Pospiech asked Li in 2000.
"Um, I guess I can help you with daily matters, but where can we find a chef?" she asked.
Pospiech smiles as he talks about the restaurant.
"I was confident about the new business, because when I was a child my mother opened a bakery which helped me a lot," he said.
The couple opened the restaurant in February 2000 at a time when Pospiech's work required him to travel regularly between Germany and Jiading, so Li quit her job and focused on the business.
As a qualified chef could not be easily found, Pospiech himself trained a newly recruited chef.
More foreigners started living in Anting as new companies invested in Jiading, so Yide Restaurant's profits grew as it became more popular.
In 2004, Pospiech quit his job in Germany and immigrated to Jiading.
But all was not smooth in the restaurant as the chefs he trained kept on quitting to work at other establishments.
So he decided to take over the restaurant's kitchen himself.
Yide Restaurant usually opens from 4pm everyday and Pospiech arrives at 3pm to have a drink with early customers.
He is busier handling the increasing number of customers and sometimes has to act as an interpreter for waiters whose English is not so good.
Although his Chinese is not so good, he gets along well with his staff and they have a good working relationship.
People may think marrying a foreigner is a little bit crazy, but Li doesn't think so.
Her most unforgettable experience was in 2002 when Dieter took her back to Germany.
"It was a small town in Bavaria state, and there was no building higher than four floors," Li recalled the visit over a month. "The town was extremely clean and the air was so fresh." Pospiech also took her to Austria and his parents treated her like their own daughter.
Just like other people who marry someone from a different country, they also encountered problems in their daily life.
The biggest conflict between them concerned where to live. Li wanted to stay with her parents but Dieter insisted on living separately.
"I felt weird about having to live with her parents because in my country when people have their own family they live apart from their parents," Pospiech said.
To resolve the issue to everyone's satisfaction, Li's parents found a nearby house so they could take care of the couple.
Also, Dieter and Li have different ideas about children.
Li thinks they should be strict with the children and Dieter believes the kids should enjoy their life.
"We've got used to each other since we have been living together for more than 10 years," said Li.
Just like his fellow countrymen, Pospiech is interested in football and F1 racing, never missing any F1 events in Jiading.
He loves to invite friends to his restaurant to enjoy food and beer and watch sport.
"I do enjoy my life, leisurely, carefree and busy," he said.
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