Every year, thousands of Middle Easterners come to Yiwu, Yiwu cheap goods exported back to their hometown, and even developed their own "Yiwu circle" in this exotic land. 1.2km from the core business district of Yiwu Binwang, a commercial street with only Middle Eastern restaurants is gradually booming.
With curiosity, we went to a cafe with only Middle Eastern customers on the street. At 9 or 10 o'clock at night, the unique watery smoke of the Middle East began to linger in the conversation and laughter of the customers amidst the scent of tobacco mixed with honey and fruits. These customers come from Jordan, Yemen, and Palestine, exhaling one dream after another about their homeland with skilled puffing. As a sudden onlooker, we joined the "Thousand and One Nights" in China, starting with a conversation, "Can I talk to you?
Advertising posters for the Middle East in Yiwu International Trade City
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Khair has a Middle Eastern version of "Mr. Wang's face", satisfying all the public's stereotypes of "middle-aged rich men": a large, trembling belly, a fat double chin, a gold bracelet with a thick forefinger, and in his fifties, with two voluptuous and beautiful objects. , the first from Belarus, the second Brazil, unaware of each other's existence.
"I was on the street in Jordan, driving my car, and saw a particularly beautiful woman." Khair squinted and showed us pictures of his two subjects, the woman on the screen with her beaky mouth and deep cleavage on her chest, "I rolled down my window to talk to her and later got together with her." Khair has posted a photo of him and his son in his circle of friends, behind a big red Ferrari is a birthday gift from him to his son.
Khair came to Yiwu purely for "business reasons". After graduating from high school, he had been working in his hometown of Jordan, figuring out the hair accessories business, and as he got bigger, he realized that all the good and cheap hair accessories were exported from the same place: Yiwu, China. In order to save the difference in the middle of the purchase price, 12 years ago, he came to Yiwu to find cheap new products for foreign trade companies in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. According to the aesthetics of the Arabs, he instructed the store owners in Yiwu Trade City to add pearls to the original basic models of the pattern and make fancy patterns, the principle is "not to pursue quality, but only require the style and 'more' and 'good-looking' ".
Yiwu, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, merchants in the procurement negotiations a carpet exported to Arab countries (Photo credit: Visual China)
Every morning at 11:00 or 12:00, he would carry his stomach, with his thin female interpreter, in the 4.7 million square meters of trade city patrol until 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., picking out the goods he identified as "business opportunities". Because of the epidemic, most of the Middle Eastern merchants he competes with have been "inaccessible" for the past two years, making him one of the few hair accessories suppliers who can personally review the merchandise.
"I'm the only one who knows what the goods actually look like." He giggled, his fat face shifting to hide the wry look, "It's important. In business, you have to see your merchandise in person."
In 2020, Khair netted more than three million RMB. When he returns from shopping for goods in the afternoon, he takes a nap at home to rest. Every night at 9 p.m., he goes to his regular cafe to smoke a hookah and play Turkish board games until 3 or 4 a.m. with his Middle Eastern friends, who are also in Yiwu. He only orders "mixed fruit" hookahs, because this is the only brand "Jordan would use", "mint", "peach flavor", "peach flavor", "watermelon flavor" in his opinion are all miscellaneous, fancy.
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"I'm from Ninghai," said the two-eyed man sitting next to Khair, talking like he had a piece of candy in his mouth, and it seemed like there was a train racing down his throat, and his pompous voice made you feel as if he was going to leave you behind after this sentence.
The two-eyed skin is his WeChat name. His own eyelids are deeply hidden behind a pair of rimless glasses, his hair is cut on both sides of the pot, his face is like someone pulled the elastic band on the hoodie, taking away the charm, tightening the five features in the middle of the face, hanging far from the square chin chin resembling Huang Xiaoming. He was so full of gangster that his face and voice were blended together, indistinguishable from each other.
He was sent by his father to the mosque's affiliated school at the age of fourteen, and a year later, scored first in the whole school in the exam. However, his father just didn't believe him and insisted that his ranking was copied, and until now he doesn't understand why. "My dad is very rich, but he just doesn't understand me and doesn't help me." He said this, and in a fit of anger, he left home and fled from Ninghai to Xi'an, where he found a restaurant and brushed dishes for a few months until he fought with the restaurant owner's son and fled again. He did not go to the bar, nor to the hotel, ran to a grave overnight, by picking the fruit on the peach tree in front of the grave, and survived for three days.
Finally, the two-eyed boy was found by his father, caught back home, and transferred to another school. But he found that the new school had all the class content that he knew by heart from his old school. at the age of 16, he went to Sudan alone, with a suitcase full of hot pot seasoning.
Unfortunately, the package of fondue seasoning was mistaken for explosives in the politically volatile Middle East by local Arab hoods who held a 24k gun to his head and forced him to ask questions. Soon after, he was forced to flee back to China because of the war and the closure of schools. He tried to do some business. Once on the streets of Yiwu, he inadvertently translated a sentence for Khair in the above article. He and Khair added WeChat and didn't have any interaction for a long time. Until more than a year later, Khair suddenly called to invite the double-eyed to help do business in Yiwu. So he drove for more than two hours from Ninghai to Yiwu.
Here, his foreign trade business developed well and his father began to gradually accept him. In the family arranged a blind date, he met the "look at the photo to marry" the girl, and she became a family, had a child, and currently living in a rental building in Yiwu bland but satisfied. He still likes to drive like a biker, turning up the motor, posting selfies and photos of himself on a camel wearing exaggerated sunglasses in his circle of friends, and going to a regular cafe every night to smoke until 2:00 or 3:00 am.
"As a 26-year-old, I've been through so much, I've been through everything, you know? That's why I smoke." Double-eyed coughing while dusting the ashes of his Chinese cigarette on the floor.
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The owner of the coffee shop that Khair and Two Eyes visit every night is a thin man from Palestine.
His hair is shaved short and flat, and his green shirt, washed and worn, hangs alone on his shriveled body, like a praying mantis with its intestines hollowed out. The owner could not speak a word of English or Chinese, but when he heard we wanted to interview him, he brought his 19-year-old nephew over.
The nephew, also from Gaza where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out, is 23 years old and came to China with his father and uncle at the age of 19. He first worked in the garment business in Guangzhou, then moved to Yiwu and followed his uncle to open this cafe. He said he loves his hometown deeply, but it is too poor and he had to leave in order to survive. Many Middle Easterners from war-torn countries don't want to go back, but he says he has the means and would love to return to Palestine to build a home, "I definitely want to go back, even if there's a war going on over there."
The only man in the family left in Gaza is his oldest brother, who is running the old family shoe store left by his grandfather. The business has suffered greatly because of the war and is now barely making ends meet, unable to make ends meet. His mother and sisters are not coming to China because they don't have enough money for the whole family to come over, and because the women can only learn the "good rules" (rules) at home.
"So are you worried about them?" News of the bombing in Gaza now scrolls daily across the international news boards. "Allah is in Gaza." That's the only answer he can give.
Today he still travels between Guangzhou and Yiwu, juggling two businesses: clothing and coffee. He doesn't speak English, and his communication with us has always been in Chinese. He only knows the simplest of adjectives, "good", "bad", "poor", "difficult", and speaks in a low voice. He spoke in a low voice and needed to get close enough to hear.
I didn't know if my question about his hometown offended the man with his head hung in Gaza, and in silence I refilled the small cup of tea in front of him, hesitating to ask him about his hometown. What is the sunrise like in Gaza? What kind of life do the children of Gaza lead? How are his friends doing now? But he still bowed his head and waved his hand, saying, "Tea for customers, not for me."
The café owner brought us a famous Syrian dessert, "Kunafeh". The fried cheese was covered with chopped pistachios and dipped in thick maltose. When I saw this dessert, it was like showing the best toy of my family to my companions, and they showed a rare smile and could not hide their pride.
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The cafe is also frequented by Moota, a 21-year-old Yemeni boy who also came to Yiwu with his uncle and father. Moota has deep sunken eyes, a pair of eyebrows curved above, and a naturally rising mouth with a smile, if anything, as if proud to be a good-looking boy. Muta's family started a foreign trade business in Yiwu more than a decade ago. As his father and uncle grew older, they brought in his brother and cousin, who were nine years older than Mukta, to help out, and four years ago, it was Mukta's turn. In order to better adapt to life in China, instead of taking over the business, Mukta went to Shaoxing and attended language school for a year.
Moktar cried "Chinese is difficult", "there are many Chinese characters", "the strokes are annoying", but also gradually adapted to Chinese culture, and even began to follow the new version of "Meteor Garden" released in 18 years. He liked Shen Yue, who played the lead role of Sugoi, and thought she was "kawaii" (cute), so he fell in love with a "kawaii" Japanese girl at the language school.
However, the women Mita met in China were not all soft and cute. A coffee shop owner he met in Shaoxing fully demonstrated the boldness of women. The owner's wife met a Palestinian man in the comment section of Shake Shack, who, according to Mukta's description, was "very handsome" and "looked like the Prince of Dubai." The two fell in love in Shaoxing, and then for some reason, the Palestinian man left without saying goodbye and went to do business in Yiwu. No matter how the boss's wife sent weibo, the message is sunk in stone. So, the boss's wife drove directly from Shaoxing to Yiwu, please she knows all the Middle Eastern friends to help find.
"She threw me the keys to her car directly!" Moota recalled the scene of helping the boss's wife to find people, smiled and shook his head, "She said you just drive my car to find people, I'll stand here and wait for him, he does not come a day I wait for him a day, a month does not come I wait for him a month, a few years does not come I will buy a cafe here and wait for him a few years!"
Middle Eastern restaurant in Yiwu
Mukta took the photo of the Palestinian man wandered in various circles of acquaintances to ask, and finally really found, brought the person to the boss's wife. From then on, the Palestinian man completely succumbed to the boss's wife's skirt and got married to her. They also invited Muta to their wedding in Yiwu. Today, the two are back together in Shaoxing where they met and their daughter was born during the epidemic.
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Forty-something Jordanian businessman Mohammed also welcomed his little princess during the epidemic. Even after twelve years in China, Mohamoud's Chinese is still not as fluent as his English, and his English retains the raspy guttural sound of a Middle Eastern accent, like the wind lifting the sand, even if his tone is gentle, but with a hint of the vicissitudes contained in it.
He was born in a small, remote village in Jordan, where his ancestors have been shepherds. Jordanian schools have morning classes from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and evening classes from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Students only have to choose one to attend. Muhammad and his 10 siblings always chose the early shift, which gave them time to romp in the afternoon on the vast expanse of yellow sand until they could see their father and his flock on the hilltop.
Every morning, their father would put the sheep far away to graze, only to emerge in the last rays of the sun as it sank over the hills. I am proud of my father, my family," Muhammad said. No matter what his position was, he worked hard just to provide for us, and I was proud and moved by that."
Later, when his father became seriously ill and no longer had the energy to work, he sold all his flocks. To make ends meet, the family's sisters married, some of the brothers went to Qatar to become teachers, others started local businesses, and Muhammad, in his twenties, was the only one who chose to come to China.
"Like some people's American dream, I have the Chinese dream." Muhammad hoped his destiny could have a little more possibility. Perhaps it was the casual conversation about the never-arrived eastern land that was the importing ground for countless Jordanian goods, or perhaps it was his own unspoken teenage imagination that convinced Mohamoud that China was the place that could change his destiny.
An open-air market in Egypt, where many of the goods come from China (Photo credit: Visual China)
Unlike almost all Middle Eastern businessmen who come to Yiwu, he doesn't have any friends or family here. He says he "wandered around the market all day and didn't receive any orders for almost a year until one day the first order fell from the sky." Now Muhammad, who specializes in dried fruits and chocolate, has spent the last decade or so traveling all over China picking up goods, Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, Shenzhen, Xinjiang .... He has traveled to more lands than he can count. His favorite part is Inner Mongolia, where the lush grasslands and creamy white sheep always remind him of his homeland.
However, he can only return to his hometown of Jordan for a month during the Spring Festival holiday every year. He has little time to familiarize himself with everything in his village except spending time with his family and friends. "When I first left, the neighbor's child was still a small child." Muhammad tries to hold his hand up to compare the height of the child he remembers, "Now, he has graduated from college." Everything in Jordan is changing at a rapid pace in ways he can hardly describe, while the look of his hometown in his mind is forever fixed at twelve years ago.
In twelve years, Muhammad had never met with his Yiwu partner for a dinner date in his spare time. He would rather drive ten minutes from the trade city to the nearest cinema, pick the coldest afternoon show on a weekday, watch one of his favorite action movies by himself, and then order an espresso to linger in the cafe next to him afterwards.
Original source: Sanlian Life Weekly
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