Growing expat community brings foreign flavors

By Peng chao in Chengdu | China Daily | Updated: 2015-07-10 07:50

Named by UNESCO as "a city of gastronomy", Chengdu attracts millions of visitors from home and abroad with its delicious food. The city is also appealing to expatriate foodies who have set up restaurants and serve foreign cuisines.

"I've achieved my dream in Chengdu," said Amir Yerushalmy, who has lived in Sichuan's capital for eight years.

Yerushalmy, who is from Israel, is among an increasing number of foreigners who are moving to Chengdu, an "economic star" in western China. More than 15,000 expatriates from 120 countries and regions now either work or study in the city.

Yerushalmy opened a bar called Jellyfish when he was studying at Sichuan University, one of the best universities in China's western region that enrolls more than 2,000 overseas students. Today his business has expanded to include catering and beauty products. He runs a restaurant called Spot next door to Jellyfish.

Before settling down in Chengdu, Yerushalmy traveled to several Chinese cities including Shanghai, Xi'an and Harbin but he said Chengdu was his favorite.

"The people here are very nice. The living is relatively comfortable compared with other big cities, yet people still have high work efficiency," he said, adding that the city is also full of business opportunities.

With China's Go-West campaign and the city's work to open up to the world, Chengdu has become one of the most dynamic cities in western China. Its GDP hit 1 trillion yuan ($161 billion) in 2014 and foreign investment in the city reached $10 billion.

The city government launched its "Entrepreneurial Tianfu" project in February, encouraging talents from home and abroad to start businesses in Chengdu.

Yerushalmy is co-founder of the Chengdu International Food and Beverage Network, whose members are mainly foreigners who run restaurants in Chengdu. The network was founded in August 2014 and has 19 international restaurants as its members.

"The biggest challenge for me is to find out what local people like to eat," Yerushalmy said. His restaurant is adding some Sichuan elements into the food. For instance, they replace chili with Sichuan chili bean sauce when making tostados, a Mexican specialty.

Zachary Fournier, owner of American restaurant Lazy Pug, insists on serving authentic food.

Fournier said his restaurant receives about 17,000 customers a year, among which 80 percent are expatriates. Some are white-collar workers for Fortune Global 500 companies, while others are tourists from overseas.

There were only a few Western restaurants owned by expatriates when Fournier arrived in Chengdu five years ago, but he said the number has surged to about 40.

"More foreigners are coming as Chengdu attracts more foreign investment," he said.

The city has attracted 265 Fortune Global 500 companies to set up operations, and more are arriving in the hope of exploiting the opportunities offered by national strategies to develop the Silk Road Economic Belt, the 21st Century Sea Silk Road, the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone and the Tianfu New Area.

Fournier said the increasing number of international air routes should also bring him more customers.

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport runs 83 international routes, linking it to cities around the world, including San Francisco, London, Moscow, Abu Dhabi and Melbourne. The city is also planning a new airport, making it the third city on the Chinese mainland to have a second airport, after Beijing and Shanghai.

About 1.97 million people from overseas visited Chengdu in 2014, an increase of 11.7 percent from the previous year, according to the city's tourism bureau.

Chengdu ranked second among the 10 fastest growing cities for inbound tourism, according to the Global Destination Cities Index, an annual travel study released by MasterCard.

"There are so many foreigners here. I hope Lazy Pug can cure their homesickness," said Fournier.

Sam Jarrar, another restaurant owner who came from Dubai in 2008, said he enjoys living and doing business in Chengdu because food, salary and rent are cheaper compared with other coastal cities, and the locals are friendly to foreigners.

"As a city of gastronomy, I think Chengdu also needs diverse kinds of food from around the world as well as Sichuan food," Jarrar said.

Zeng Yani contributed to this story.

pengchao@chinadaily.com.cn